February 2007 - American Sociological Association

Volume 35
Number 2
February 2007
Looking forward to the 2007 ASA Annual Meeting in New York . . .
“Without Yesterday There Is No Tomorrow”:
Ricardo Lagos and Chile’s Democratic Transition
Former Chilean President will be one of several notable plenary speakers at ASA’s upcoming 102nd Annual Meeting
I
by Peter Winn, Tufts University
n April 1988, as Chile emerged from 15
years of total censorship under its most
brutal dictatorship into its first electoral
campaign since the 1973 military coup, a
plebiscite was held on whether General
Augusto Pinochet should rule the
country for another decade. In a nation
accustomed to controlled media, Socialist
leader Ricardo Lagos was allowed a
rare national TV appearance. Pointing
straight at the camera, Lagos defied the
dictator: “You promise the country eight
more years of tortures, assassinations,
violations of human rights,” he said. “It
is unacceptable for a Chilean to have
such ambition for power as to try to be
in power for 25 years!” When his panicked interviewers tried to interrupt, he
insisted, “I speak for 15 years of silence.”
With that courageous act—and those
defiant words—Lagos assured his place
in history and gave Chileans the courage
to defeat the dictator “with just a pencil,”
as Chilean sociologist Teresa Valdes later
marveled.
Lagos has numerous claims to a
prominent place in Chile’s history. As
a social scientist, he published the first
major study of Chile’s concentration
of economic power. As a leader of a
clandestine Socialist party, he played
an important role in Chile’s transition
Looking forward to the 2007 ASA Annual Meeting in New York . . .
Four Trends Shaping the Big Apple
by Andrew A. Beveridge, Queens College and the Graduate Center of CUNY
W
hen the demonstrations for immigrant rights flared up around the
country last year some members of New York City’s various immigrant
groups participated, but the demonstrations here were a faint echo of those
in other cities. The simple reason: New York draws substantial numbers of
its immigrants from many different countries, continents, languages, and
origins, while the majority of immigrants and the vast majority of undocumented immigrants nationwide originate
in Mexico. This diverse immigrant population is one of four demographic trends
that define New York City’s unique social
landscape permeating every facet of life
from politics and business to culture and
family life.
Immigrant Waves
New York City’s recent population
growth was fueled by immigration.
Without it, the city’s population would
not be near eight million. “Without the
immigrants,” Mitchell Moss, professor of
urban planning and policy at New York University, has said, “New York City
would be Detroit,” a city whose population is lower now than it was in 1930.
During the 1990s, New York continued to draw large numbers of immigrants with a variety of backgrounds, origins, and economic status. Unlike
virtually every other immigrant area in the United States, immigrants to New
York City come from many different places:
• Older European countries such as Russia, Italy, and Poland;
• The Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Haiti;
• Asia, including China, Korea, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India;
• Central and South America, including Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Some of these groups are better educated than others; some gravitate to
certain professions; some are self-employed. The economic status, family
status, and ratio of male to female vary widely from group to group. The
immigrants today are increasingly segregated from the rest of the population
and from other immigrant groups than were immigrants at the turn of the
20th century, and even groups from the same nation often gravitate to different locations.
Mayor Giuliani once remarked that he loved all immigrants, legal or
illegal, but in recent years New York City, along with the rest of the country,
See New York, page 8
to democracy and in the 1988 plebiscite
ending Pinochet’s authoritarian rule.
He also founded and led the Party for
Democracy, which became one of Chile’s
main political parties. As minister of
education and minister of public works,
Lagos demonstrated skill as an administrator and ability to innovate within the
constraints of an authoritarian constitution and a neoliberal economy.
In 2000, Lagos was elected Chile’s
first Socialist president since Salvador
Allende. Despite a narrow electoral
mandate and an inherited economic
recession, Lagos was one of the most
successful presidents in Chilean history. Moreover, he nurtured the political career of Michelle Bachelet and was
instrumental in her succeeding him
as the first woman president of Chile.
At the opening plenary session of the
Annual Meeting, Lagos will be honored
for his courageous and path-breaking career as a social scientist in politics—sustained even in Chile’s darkest
hour by a belief that another world was
possible.
In the Beginning
Ricardo Lagos Escobar was born in
1938, the same year as the Center-Left
Popular Front won the national elections. The dominant party in the Chilean
Popular Front was the centrist Radical
Party, secular reformers with a middle
class base. His uncle was a Radical
Deputy and it was as a Radical student
leader that Lagos would first enter politics. He studied law at the University of
Chile, but became increasingly interested
in economics. His thesis on the concentration of economic power in Chile, a
pioneering study, concluded that the
top 4.2% of corporations in Chile controlled 59.2% of the capital invested in
joint stock companies and laid bare the
interlocking directorships through which
Chile’s elite controlled the economy.
By the time his thesis was published,
Lagos was doing graduate work at Duke
University (1960–62) where he earned a
PhD in economics. Returning to Chile,
Lagos became an economics professor at
the University of Chile and later director of its School of Political Science. In
1969, he was elected Secretary-General of
the University of Chile as the candidate
of the leftist Popular Unity Alliance of
See Lagos, page 8
Remembering a Giant of Sociology
Seymour Martin Lipset (1922–2006)
by Claude S. Fischer and Ann Swidler,
University of California-Berkeley
S
other roles—hardly describe how consequential he was. By one study, Lipset
was the most cited social scientist in the
world.
Lipset established many of the theories and research agendas in political
sociology, stratification, modernization,
and other fields. Much of his work arose
from questions about the social bases of
democracy and the absence of
socialism in America. They led
him to study Canada, comparative development, American
history, the nature of democratic and anti-democratic
politics, the labor movement,
social class, and much more.
eymour Martin Lipset, one of the
giants of sociology in the 20th century,
died on December 31, 2006, in Arlington,
VA.
Marty Lipset shaped modern sociology by writing a string of classic works,
nurturing a legion of eminent
students, and radiating a kindness that warmed all those
around him.
Lipset, the son of RussianJewish immigrants, grew
up immersed in the intense,
Marxist debates of his Bronx
neighborhood, an atmosphere
Socialism and Democracy
which he later credited with
His dissertation book,
sparking his intellectual
Agrarian Socialism (1950), was
concerns and political commitSeymour Martin
the first in a series that used the
ments. Lipset, along with other
Lipset
American-Canadian comparimemorable student activists
son to address systematically
at the City College of New
the “why no socialism?” question. Union
York in the 1930s, such as Daniel Bell,
Democracy (1956), with Martin Trow
Nathan Glazer, Irving Howe, and Philip
and James Coleman, examined why
Selznick, remade American social science
the democratically run printers’ union
and intellectual life in the middle of the
managed to escape Michels’ “iron law of
century.
oligarchy.” Through intensive, multiLipset’s formal positions—promethod, team research, the authors
fessorships at Toronto, Columbia,
discovered the importance of small,
Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, and George
mediating groups—what would later be
Mason; presidencies of the American
labeled “civil society”—for democracy.
Sociological Association, the American
Union Democracy alone would be the
Political Science Association, the United
crowning achievement of most academic
States Institute of Peace; membership in
the National Academy of Sciences; and
See Lipset, page 6
Published by the American Sociological Association
F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
In This Issue . . .
3
4
Sociology
and General
Education
7
ASA Opportunity
for Undergraduates
The Honors Program is a
valuable resource and experience
for undergraduate students.
Sociologist Bloggers
Speak Out
Four sociologists comment on
their experiences and encourage
more sociologists to read,
research, and write blogs.
4
Sociological Discourse
at the Center of
Gentrification
5
Task Force on
General Education
Recommendations
5
7
11
Kubrin and Squires bring
race and place to a DC
restaurant/lounge/bookstore.
Sociology has a variety of
contributions to the general
education curriculum.
ASA Award Winners
Announced
Be sure to congratulate your
colleagues.
Sociologists as
Ambassadors
Zulfacar is the first female
Afghan ambassador and Austin
represents America in Trinidad
and Tobago.
A Spotlight on a
Longtime, Loyal
Member
Lief takes pride in serving his
community.
Our Regular Features
Public Forum........................................................... 12
Departments............................................................ 13
Obituaries................................................................ 15
The Executive Officer’s Column
Enhancing the ASA Public Information Program
A
year ago, the ASA Council expressed strong interest in
having the ASA Executive Office expand our program of
outreach to the mass media. Council believed additional
resources invested in this activity would significantly leverage our existing efforts and permit new approaches to bring
sociology and sociological research to the general public and
policymakers through the media. While ASA’s current outreach efforts have had notable successes, and we have a strong
track record with a sizable set of journalists, more is better.
After an organization-wide communications audit by a
Sally T. Hillsman
firm with expertise in social science communication, we have
begun working on key recommendations Council found compelling. Generally, the
goal of our Public Information Program (PIP) is to scale up dissemination of research
findings to broader public audiences—through both national and local media—by
working daily to connect the media with sociologists who have expertise in topics of
interest to producers and journalists. The addition to the Executive Office staff of an
experienced professional Media Relations Officer (MRO) with a background in sociology and in award-winning broadcast news production will help ASA capitalize on
new and existing opportunities. (See article, “New Staff at the ASA Executive Office,”
on p. 12 of this issue.)
Media Relations Activities
Vantage
Point
Proactive and media outreach is
central to success. ASA has long been
reliably responsive to journalists’
inquiries and requests for interviewees
and research. We are now producing a timely flow
to the press (e.g., media advisories, press releases,
story pitches) and continue responding to daily press inquiries. We are also beginning to rethink the ASA’s press web pages. These first steps toward more creative
and effective publicity are in alignment with Council’s aspirations.
Experiments with new ways of outreach will follow as we continue to integrate
media relations functions into other ASA activities and programs. We have made
considerable progress engaging media interest in the new knowledge published in
our journals (something many authors thought unlikely), but we need to build the
capacity of ASA and members to outreach effectively. We also need to shape a media
niche for the scholarly community, develop stronger external networks and alliances,
and, especially, to brand this niche as sociology. Too many members’ work is cited in
the press, with or without attribution to the scholar or researcher, but without reference to the work as sociological.
Engagement of Membership
The backbone of the PIP is our membership. It is your expertise, scholarship, and
unique knowledge that provide added value to the media and its audiences. The goal
of our PIP is to promote the Association, sociology, and sociologists by providing a
link between sociologists and the media, aggressively encouraging the media to want
those sources, and to firmly brand that added value as sociological. Our MRO taps
several databases of experts, especially those who have published and presented
scholarship. We engage the leadership of ASA Sections, members of Council, task
forces, and committees for referrals, and we regularly are approached by members
about their own availability to the press.
Guiding Principles
In providing the media with sociological knowledge, the ASA is not advocating
for particular positions, forms of research, or areas of expertise. Obviously, only by
vote of Council or the membership does the Association speak officially on behalf
of the membership. Our PIP staff provide these official statements to the media with
appropriate persons in leadership and/or subject matter experts to provide context.
Individual sociologists—members or not—whom we connect to the media speak on
their own behalf with their professional credentials as the basis of their contributions.
It is the responsibility of the Association, however, to provide the press with sociologists who have professional expertise in the area about which they speak. This is
typically determined by research and publication in peer-reviewed journals or other
evidence of pertinent scholarship.
Our new MRO has begun a proactive weekly email to selected reporters and
editors relating to timely news. In January, her advisories have generated member
interviews with the New York Daily News, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and New York City’s WPIX-TV, among others. In addition, these advisories
have resulted in inquiries from Fox News Channel, Al Jazeera International, and
National Public Radio. She has aggressively promoted ASA journal articles, collaborating with the authors’ institutional Public Information Officers to promote upcoming publications. She works especially closely with the editors and managing editors,
as appropriate, to promote ASA journal articles. Relying on her journalism skills,
ASA is working to re-structure the media relations webpage to align better with the
needs of journalists and producers. ASA and its members already are reaping results
as our MRO establishes a relationship with new media outlets and encourages more
journalists to look first to the ASA as a reliable resource for new knowledge, interviews, and comments from sociologists. We will keep our members updated on these
activities, and look forward to engaging with more of you as we move forward.
­—Sally T. Hillsman
February 2007 Footnotes
ASA Honors Program
Expands Opportunities
for Undergraduates
O
n August 10, 2006, 54 talented undergraduate sociology students from around the
country came together for the ASA Honors Program Orientation in Montréal, Canada,
as part of the 101st Annual Meeting. For four days, these exceptional students had the
unique opportunity to experience all facets of the ASA Annual Meeting—from attending and/or presenting at sessions organized specifically for them to networking with
other aspiring sociologists and prominent professors in the field.
The Honors Program was created in order to provide undergraduate sociology
students a rich introduction to the professional life of the discipline. For many of the
students the Annual Meeting is their first time attending a professional meeting of this
scale.
One of the major highlights of the 2006 Honors Program was the Honors Roundtable
session. It is during this session that students had the opportunity to present their own
research to a small group of their peers, with an ASA Minority Fellowship Program
(MFP) Fellow serving as presider. This year, there were 10 roundtables ranging in topics from the sociology of education to the sociology of mental health. Following the
presentations, the MFP Fellows provided the students with detailed feedback on their
research.
Other highlights during the 2006 Honors Program included the Career Panel and the
Graduate School Panel, which the students found helpful as they approach the end of
their undergraduate careers. When students were asked about their experiences, some
of the testimonial comments heard were, “It was enjoyable, educational and extremely
fruitful,” “…one of the best and amazing experiences that I have ever had,” and “It was
an invaluable experience that I will encourage other eager sociology students to seek.”
In addition to the three winners of the Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD)
Undergraduate Student Paper competition, participants in the Honors
Program are chosen primarily by the Honors Program Advisory Panel.
Each year, AKD holds a paper competition for graduate and undergraduate students and three winning papers are selected for each competition.
The winners of the undergraduate competition are automatically eligible
to participate in the Honors Program and receive a monetary prize as
well as travel support to the Annual Meeting. Recently, the AKD Council
voted to move up their competition deadline to coincide with the Honors
Program application deadline. For more information on the AKD paper
competition, visit the AKD website at <www.alpha-kappa-delta.org>.
Other participants are selected based on their grade point averages, written narratives, and faculty recommendations. The Advisory Panel also selects participants
who can contribute to the rich texture of sociology and who are perceived as having
the potential to “pass it on.” This year’s deadline for applications is February 26, 2007.
For more information on the 2007 Honors Program and for applications, visit the ASA
website at <www.asanet.org> and click on “Students.”
Phi Beta Kappa Honors
Tilly with the 2006 Sidney
Hook Memorial Award
T
he Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation’s oldest academic
honor society, presented sociologist Charles Tilly with the
Sidney Hook Memorial Award at the 41st Triennial Council of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society held in Atlanta this month.
Tilly, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia
University, is an internationally recognized authority on long-term social
processes. In an extraordinarily productive academic career spanning nearly
half a century, his writings have transformed our understanding of politics,
contestation, and social change more generally. From his
influential early work on urbanization and industrial
conflict, to his research on collective action, revolution, and state formation, through his recent emphasis
on social relations, identity, and culture, Tilly has been
consistently ahead of the curve, asking basic questions of
the discipline, and coming up with fresh and provocative
answers
A 2005 Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award
winner, Tilly is a member of the National Academy of
Charles Tilly
Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and a Chavalier de l’Ordre des Palmes
Academiques. He is a past Guggenheim fellow and a fellow of the German
Marshall Fund. He has published more than a dozen major books, in excess
of 250 articles and book chapters, and at least that many invited comments
and book reviews.
Phi Beta Kappa’s mission is to champion education in the liberal arts and
sciences, to recognize academic excellence, and to foster freedom of thought
and expression.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS UPDATE
✔ NIH peer review system being considered for improvements . . . .
Concerns about the efficiency of peer review expressed by the scientific
community have prompted NIH leadership to consider as a priority reengineering the peer review system. The debate is not whether peer review
is still important and necessary, but what to do to revamp the system.
Antonio Scarpa, Director of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), emphasized at a recent public meeting the “strategic national importance of
peer review” and called it the “heart and soul of NIH.” Major concerns
from the scientific community relate to the peer review process being too
slow and lacking sufficient senior and experienced reviewers. Scarpa said
that part of the problem is intellectual and part of it is structural, given
that the process was designed for face-to-face meetings of reviewers. One
of the challenges and opportunities facing NIH peer review is a mechanical issue—reassigning and improving administration and organizational
systems and procedures. The second challenge is cultural—facilitating the
identification and advancement of more significant, innovative, and high
impact research. NIH plans to shorten the review cycle, improve study
section alignment and performance, increase recruitment and retention
of high-quality reviewers, and decrease the burden on applicants and
reviewers. NIH also wants the input of the scientific community. For more
information, visit <www.nih.gov>.
✔ New website allows exploration of data on metropolitan areas . . . . Diversitydata.org allows visitors to explore how metropolitan areas throughout the United States perform on a diverse range of social measures that
comprise a well-rounded life experience. Diversitydata.org, developed by
the Harvard School of Public Health and the Center for the Advancement of
Health and support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, provides a dataset
of socioeconomic indicators for metropolitan areas in the form of tables,
thematic maps, and customizable reports. Some domains used include
housing, neighborhood conditions, residential integration, education, and
health factors such as disability rates, health insurance, births to teenager
mothers, births to unmarried mothers, prenatal care, smoking during pregnancy, preterm births, and low birth-weight rates. To accompany the new
website, Diversitydata.org has planned a series of reports based on the data
indicators. The first report, released in conjunction with the launch of the
new website, is titled Children Left Behind: How Metropolitan Areas Are Failing
American Children. The report examines the well-being of children in the
100 largest metropolitan areas and scores those areas for the living conditions they provide to white, black, Hispanic, and Asian children based on
indicators of health, family income, home ownership, residential and school
segregation, and neighborhood and school socioeconomic environment.
Using a summary measure of neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, the
report shows the metropolitan areas with worst and best neighborhood
environments for children of different racial/ethnic groups.
✔ Two social scientists are appointed to NIH Advisory Committee of the
Director . . . . The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected seven
new members to serve on the 13-member Advisory Committee to the
Director (ACD). Two of those new members—Alan I. Leshner, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and Barbara L. Wolfe, University of Wisconsin-Madison—have strong social science backgrounds. The
ACD advises the NIH Director on policy and planning issues important
to the NIH mission of conducting and supporting biomedical and behavioral research, research training, and translating research results for the
public. Leshner is chief executive officer of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of its journal,
Science. Previously, Leshner had been Director of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse at the NIH, and Deputy Director and Acting Director of the
National Institute of Mental Health. Before that, he held a variety of senior
positions at the National Science Foundation. In 2004, he was appointed by
President George W. Bush to the National Science Board. Wolfe is Professor
of Economics, Population Health Sciences, and Public Affairs and Faculty
Affiliate at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also is currently serving as Director of the La
Follette School of Public Affairs. Her research focuses broadly on poverty
and health issues. Her current projects examine the effect of expansions in
public health insurance on health care coverage and labor force outcomes
and the role of income on health. Additional information is available at
<www.nih.gov/about/director/acd/index.htm>.
✔ Recommended improvements in federal statistics on STEM workforce . . . . While the federal statistics community does an admirable job
of producing data on science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) professionals, opportunities exist for improvement according to
a Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) report.
The white paper, released in January by CPST and titled Improving Federal
Statistics on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Workforce,
is a product of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-funded STEM Workforce
Data Project. It makes several recommendations, including changes to the
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes and improvements in
implementations of the new North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS). Check online for the white paper <www.cpst.org/STEM_Report.
cfm> and related press release <www.cpst.org/STEM_Press.cfm>.
F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
television, practice religion, engage in
extensive personal grooming rituals, or
have kids they refuse to neglect,” argues
Freese, currently a health policy research
scholar at Harvard. “I have little patience
fields of sociology,” Hargittai asserts.
for anyone who does any of these things
“It’s a great way to hear about other
and thinks me derelict for the time I
people’s work and what other people
spend blogging. I have much enthusiasm
are thinking about.” As the director of
for my work and spend much time at
Northwestern’s Web-Use Project, havit, but I am not going to forgo all other
ing a blog is aligned with Hargittai’s
things I enjoy for the sake of sociology.”
research concerns. She believes that, for
“It’s not clear why people see it as
her personally, not having a blog would
a substitute for academic research as
be “problematic,” as her research focuses
opposed to, say, a substitute for watchon the social implications and social
ing TV,” Hargittai, who also posts on the
aspects of informational technology uses.
academic blog
C.N. Le,
Crooked Timber,
University of
“Sociologists have the opportunity to be
adds. “Now
Massachusettsat the forefront of this social phenomenon one reason why
Amherst,
people might
believes that
and to apply our collective knowledge to
confuse this
sociologists have
help society understand its inner workings is because it
a responsibiland social ramifications,” Le explains.
is writing and
ity to enlarge
maybe some
the blogosphere
people don’t understand why some
with their expertise. “Sociologists have
might want to write recreationally.”
the opportunity to be at the forefront of
She believes that some posts could be
this social phenomenon and to apply
considered academic service. “Sure, if
our collective knowledge to help society
you write a piece for an ASA section
understand its inner workings and
newsletter, that’s not going to be a peersocial ramifications,” he explains. “If our
reviewed journal article, but one could
discipline claims to analyze and undercompare some blogging to that,” she
stand social dynamics and relationships,
explains.
blogging is definitely at the forefront of
As an example of how blogging has
such trends and that’s [where] socioloacademic relevance, last year, Hargittai
gists need to be.”
was on a National Communication
A Hobby with Academic Relevance
Association panel about how to complete a dissertation successfully. She
So what about perceptions that
included the highlights from the talk
blogging has a detrimental effect on
on a blog post, which led to more than
“legitimate” scholarship? All four blog40 response comments posted. She also
ger-sociologists agree that it is unfair to
received inquiries from graduate study
assume that they are not as committed
directors from across the country asking
to their profession because their hobby
for permission to reprint her dissertation
is within public view. “I understand
completion strategies. Hargittai said, “So
that there are sociologists who have
in that sense it’s a service to the discimonomaniacal devotion to their craft
pline or to various disciplines. And that
to the exclusion of all else. However,
many sociologists pursue hobbies, watch
See Blogger, page 12
Portrait of the Sociologist as Blogger
Footnotes interviewed four sociologists in the continually expanding blogosphere population (Jeremy Freese, Eszter Hargittai, Rebecca Hensley, and C.N. Le)
willing to share their experiences blogging as sociologists and their ideas about
the sociology of blogging. Read about this evolving online social phenomenon.
by LaVon Rice, Freelance Journalist
A
blog, short for weblog, is a user-generated website where entries are made in
journal style and displayed in a reverse
chronological order. In the last couple
of years the number of blogs has grown
exponentially. Blogs generally represent
the personality of the author or the website, and their purposes range from news
sources or updates on current research
to quirky musings or news on celebrity
gossip. For the sociologists below, the
purpose and content of their blog is as
varied as their personalities.
For Jeremy Freese, it was boredom
that catapulted him into
the blogosphere. “I started
my blog on a whim because
it was the summer, I was
working hard but also a
little bored, and it looked
fun,” recalls Freese,
University of WisconsinMadison. “I figured when
I started my blog that I
would probably do it for two weeks,
get bored and stop.” Now three and a
half years later, the self-described “boy
detective” is still investigating topics as
diverse as his heating bill, over-pampered pets, and the logic of sending a
mannequin thief to prison for life.
For Rebecca Hensley, a visiting sociology professor at St. Leo University who
specializes in power and race relations,
starting her blog was a way to supplement classroom teaching. “When I
would teach about race, my students
would often urge me to meet with them
for continued discussion on the topic
outside of class periods,” she explains.
“Blogging offered me a mechanism with
which I could say, ‘If you want to know
more about this, you can visit my blog
on race.’” Its popularity did not end with
students as other academics expanded
the scope of the audience, which led to
intense exchanges at times. “Readers
range widely, some are highly educated,
and since it’s on a blog, they can be
bold in their critiques—in the broadest
possible public setting.
It’s heady business,” she
adds.
Social Implications
Why academics
blog has not yet been
“explored systematically,” maintains Eszter
Hargittai, although she
does have a graduate student pursuing
such research. According to Hargittai,
Northwestern University, sociologists
are less likely to blog than legal scholars, economists, and political scientists,
although the reason for that is unclear.
Blogging, she said, is useful for connecting to other scholars within the
discipline. “Blogging can be a great way
to connect with people from other sub-
Busboys, Poets, and Sociologists:
A Place for Discourse
An aspiring sociologist’s experience with public sociology in Washington, DC
by Kyle Anthony Murphy, ASA Academic
and Professional Affairs Program
T
he evening at a progressive
Washington, DC, bookstore started with
a striking statistic: In Bethesda, MD (an
upper-income DC suburb), there is one
pediatrician for every 400 children. In
the Southeast quadrant of Washington,
DC, there is one pediatrician for every
3,700 children. This was the first in a line
of facts that demonstrated the continued
significance in the United States of not
only race but also place.
Food, Art, and Science on U Street
The venue for this discussion,
Busboys and Poets, is a unique place
that can only be described with slashes
or hyphens. It is a restaurant/lounge/
bookstore/coffee house/event center
that cannot be reduced to any one of
its components. Along with a complete
menu, tables, sofas, and a bar, there is a
left-leaning, non-profit bookstore, and
a private room with a stage for daily
events. Somewhat appropriately, the
place sits at a famous crossroad in the
District where recent gentrification has
profoundly affected the neighborhood.
The U Street corridor, once referred
to as “Black Broadway,” housed famous
jazz lounges and night spots frequented
by the likes of Duke Ellington and
Langston Hughes. The name “Busboys
and Poets” refers to Hughes’ mid-1920s
stint as a busboy (and of course a published poet) in a District hotel. U Street
was devastated by the riots of the 1960s,
and has only begun to come back in
the last several years with the development of luxury condominium buildings
like the Langston Lofts, which houses
Busboys and Poets on the ground floor.
An ACTOR Without a Script
At Busboys and Poets’ ACTOR [A
Continuing Talk on Race] series, Gregory
Squires and Charis Kubrin, both of
George Washington University, argued
that race remains an important factor in
persistent inequalities. They based their
argument on their new book Privileged
Places: Race, Residence, and the Structure of
Opportunity (Lynne Rienner, 2006). The
book explains the prominence of place,
or neighborhood, in shaping one’s life
and chances for a variety of positive
and negative experiences. For example,
drawing from their research on a community of criminal offenders in Portland,
OR, Kubrin explained that released
offenders who re-entered resource-poor
neighborhoods were more likely to re-
offend. In summary, though recidivism is
responses, their presentation guided the
often explained in terms of race, it may be
audience through an accessible and caremore fruitful to consider how resourcefully crafted argument. They explained
poor neighborhoods encourage recidithe situation at a neighborhood level
vism and how these neighborhoods are
with respect to housing, crime, and other
most likely to contain minority residents.
sociological phenomena, noting the cenBusboys and Poets’ monthly talk on
trality of place and race in shaping the
race is a Sunday
opportunity strucevening affair
ture in the United
that I have
States. Perhaps most
attended for
important, they
the last several
provided specific
months. On
policy suggestions
my first trip
that could contribute
to ACTOR,
to solutions.
the audiWith a measure of
ence watched
bias, I attribute the
American
standout nature of
Blackout, a docutheir talk to the virmentary that
tues of sociological
discussed black
research. Carefully
voter disenfranconstructed queschisement in the
tions, meticulously
Charis Kubrin (left) and Gregory Squires (right)
most prominent
crafted means for
pose before a mural in the Langston Room of
recent elections.
learning what the
Busboys and Poets after their talk on race and
A typical evesituation is, and a
place in the ACTOR series.
ning consists of
targeted translation
some focal point,
of findings for a
such as a movie or a speaker, followed by
public audience are some hallmarks of a
open discussion. The ACTOR events typigood sociological presentation. Similarly,
cally break into audience commentary,
these qualities are exactly what is necesstrategic disagreements, and personal
sary at a community venue like Busboys
defenses, which are not uncommon in
and Poets, which encourages discussion
public forums where nearly anything
that lends itself to action.
goes.
For more information about the presentaThe evening of Squires and Kubrin’s
tion and book, contact Gregory Squires
talk on race and place was an exception to
([email protected]) or Charis Kubrin
this style. Instead of a contentious discus([email protected]).
sion with often unrelated questions and
February 2007 Footnotes
Task Force on General Education Issues Report
by Carla B. Howery, ASA Academic and
Professional Affairs
T
he ASA’s Task Force on Sociology
and General Education has completed
its work and has issued a report to assist
departments as they participate in the
plans and debates on general education
requirements on campus. This resource
provides ideas, models, and a literature
review about how sociology can contribute to frequently advanced goals for
general education programs.
The Task Force on Sociology and
General Education was established in
2004 by the ASA Council to develop
models and rationales for the various ways in which sociology courses
contribute to general education requirements and liberal arts skills. The ASA
Council asked the Task Force to focus
on six specific content areas, including multicultural education/diversity,
international/global issues, quantitative
literacy, writing-intensive experiences,
introductory freshman survey courses,
and interdisciplinary freshman seminars.
In accepting the spirit of this charge,
the Task Force centered its work on two
inter-related questions. First, how might
sociology courses effectively contribute
to general education requirements?
Second, how might sociology courses
most effectively utilize general education requirements in the development of
its majors? Most discussions on general
education emphasize the first question,
addressed in a context that often mixes
intellectual commitment to social science knowledge and “turf protection”
of enrollments. How general education
courses taken by students who become
majors late in their undergraduate career
aids in their sociological education was
a new emphasis that needs additional
elaboration and research.
On most campuses, there is agreement that general education requirements (courses and co-curricular
opportunities) help provide broad liberal
arts knowledge and the skills to be a
lifelong learner. The debates often rest
on which disciplines or courses provide
core knowledge and skills in the general
education plan. The Task Force reviewed
many institution’s general education
goals. Further, they met with staff and
members of the Association of American
Colleges and Universities (AACU), a
Washington, DC-based higher education association that has been a leader
in liberal arts education. AACU has an
annual conference on general education
and a number of publications about core
liberal arts/general education learning
outcomes for all students.
After this review, the Task Force
identified ways in which sociology contributes to students’ learning outcomes
in nine fundamental areas, including
quantitative literacy, knowledge of
society, multiculturalism and diversity,
global awareness, critical thinking, civic
engagement, communication, moral
reasoning, and collaborative work. The
report summarizes the research literature
on teaching and learning and provides a
rationale for the claim about sociology’s
important contributory role. For departments involved in campus conversations
about general education, this information should be relevant and time-saving.
The report also addresses the issue of
assessment of the same nine general education learning outcomes. Unfortunately,
there is less empirical evidence about
student learning and ways to enhance it.
our work, we now know that sociology,
Nonetheless, linking goals and assesswhile acknowledging the importance of
ment is a strategy this Task Force, ASA
these learning outcomes through reports
such as Liberal Learning and the Sociology
groups working on related topics, and
the AACU all endorse.
Major, has not assessed students’ perforThe report is the third in a set of
mance in these areas either systematireports developed by ASA task forces
cally or comprehensively. Much work
and approved by ASA Council that can
remains to be completed in the areas of
curriculum development and assessment
guide sociology departments’ curriculum. The first report, Liberal Learning and
of student outcomes in ways that attend
the Sociology Major Updated (2004) proto the relationship between sociology
vides goals for
and general
the major and
education.
As Sociology and General Education
Toward that
recommendaTask Force Chair Bruce Keith notes, “That
tions for how
end, we offer
departments
six recommensociology can articulate demonstrably its
can structure
dations, which
contribution to important areas of student
their curricubuild upon the
lum. Following learning is noteworthy. But sociology can and preceding and
that report, in
groundbreakmust do more to advance student learning.”
2005, a task
ing efforts of
force completed Creating an Effective
earlier ASA Task Forces.”
The Task Force on Sociology and
Assessment Plan for the Sociology Major.
General Education made the following
The report on Sociology and General
Education (2007) is the final volume in
recommendations in its final report to
this series of resources for departments.
Council.
For example, when departments ask
Sociology departments should:
ASA’s help in identifying consultants
1
for program reviews , ASA will send
Recommendation 1: Contribute to a
these three volumes as background
consensus about general educational
documents.
goals, definitions, and what it is that
As Sociology and General Education
undergraduates should learn in the genTask Force Chair Bruce Keith notes,
eral education curriculum, taking into
“That sociology can articulate demonaccount the institutional mission, type,
strably its contribution to important
size, and student characteristics.
areas of student learning is noteworthy.
Recommendation 2: Emphasize with
But sociology can and must do more to
examples the discipline’s important
advance student learning. As a result of
contributions to desired student learning
outcomes.
1 The ASA offers a consultant service to departRecommendation 3: Develop curricula
ments called the Department Resources Group.
within
the department and in the general
Over 50 consultants from a wide range of institueducation curriculum around a set of coltions are trained to undertake program programs
or lead workshops on teaching and learning. For
laboratively designed, well-articulated
more information, contact [email protected].
learning outcomes.
Recommendation 4: Ensure that the
requirements of the major are mapped to
general education learning outcomes and
explicitly conveyed to students in order to
strengthen their foundational knowledge
within a study-in-depth experience.
Recommendation 5: Collect and analyze
systematically assessment data and communicate these results to faculty, students,
and appropriate publics to ensure that
student performance is consistent with
the general education learning goals.
Recommendation 6: Share accomplishments in general education with the
community of sociologists, at professional
meetings, on the ASA website, and in
publications appearing in scholarly work
on teaching and learning.
Task Force on Sociology and General
Education. 2007. Sociology and General
Education. Washington, DC: American
Sociological Association. $6 ASA members
and $10 non-members. Order via <www.
asanet.org/bookstore>.
Task Force Members:
Bruce Keith, United States Military
Academy (Chair)
Nancy Greenwood, Indiana
University, Kokomo
Gary Hampe, University of Wyoming
Harriet Hartman, Rowan University
Carla Howery, American Sociological
Association
Carol Jenkins, Glendale Community
College (AZ)
Gayle Kaufman, Davidson College
Peter Meiksins, Cleveland State
University
Donald Reitzes, Georgia State
University
Susan Ross, Lycoming College
Debra Swanson, Hope College
Deborah White, Minnesota State
University
Congratulations to the 2007 ASA Award Winners
A
SA proudly announces the winners
of the ASA Awards for 2007! The awards
are the highest honor that the Association
confers. These outstanding scholars will
be recognized at the 2007 Annual Meeting
Awards Ceremony on Sunday, August
12, at 4:30 pm. The Awards Ceremony will
immediately precede the formal address
of ASA President Frances Fox Piven.
The ASA awards honor sociologists
for outstanding publications and achievements in the scholarship, teaching, and
practice of sociology. The recipients are
selected by committees directly appointed
by the ASA Council. The announcement of the Dissertation Award and the
WEB DuBois Career of Distinguished
Scholarship Award will be announced at a
later date.
The officers of the Association extend
heartfelt congratulations to the following
honorees:
Distinguished Career Award for the
Practice of Sociology: Robert A. Dentler
(University of Massachusetts)
This annual award honors outstanding
contributions to sociological practice. The
award recognizes work that has facilitated
or served as a model for the work of others, work that has significantly advanced
the utility of one or more specialty areas in
sociology and, by so doing, has elevated
the professional status or public image of
the field as whole, or work that has been
honored or widely recognized outside the
discipline for its significant impacts, par-
ticularly in advancing human welfare.
Distinguished Book Award: Patricia
Hill Collins (University of MarylandCollege Park) for her book, Black
Sexual Politics (Routledge Press) and
Jerome Karabel for his book, The Chosen
(Houghton Mifflin)
This annual award is given for a
single book or monograph published in
the three preceding calendar years.
Distinguished Contributions
to Teaching Award: Edward L. Kain
(Southwestern University)
This award is given annually to honor
outstanding contributions to the undergraduate and/or graduate teaching and
learning of sociology, which improve the
quality of teaching.
Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award: Jorge
Bustamante (University of Notre Dame)
The Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award
honors the intellectual traditions and
contributions of Oliver Cox, Charles S.
Johnson, and E. Franklin Frazier. The
award is given either to a sociologist for
a lifetime of research, teaching, and service to the community or to an academic
institution for its work in assisting the
development of scholarly efforts in this
tradition.
Excellence in the Reporting of Social
Issues Award: Malcolm Gladwell
The Award for Excellence in the
Reporting of Social Issues honors individuals for their promotion of sociological findings and a broader vision of
sociology. The ASA would
like to recognize the contributions of those who have
been especially effective in
disseminating sociological
perspectives and research.
The ASA is cognizant of
the fact that there are many professionals (e.g., journalists, filmmakers) whose
job it is to translate and interpret a wide
range of information, including sociological perspectives and research, for the
general public.
Jessie Bernard Award: Patricia Yancey
Martin (Florida State University)
The Jessie Bernard Award is given
annually in recognition of scholarly
work that has enlarged the horizons of
sociology to encompass fully the role
of women in society. The contribution
may be in empirical research, theory, or
methodology.
Award for Public Understanding of
Sociology: Andrew A. Beveridge (Queens
College, CUNY)
This award is given annually to a
person or persons who have made exemplary contributions to advance the public
understanding of sociology, sociological
research, and scholarship among the
general public.
Any questions about the awards can
be directed to Daniel Spar, Governance,
Sections and Archives. He can be
reached at (202) 383-9005, ext. 334 or at
[email protected].
F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
Lipset, from page 1
careers. Lipset’s most widely read book,
Political Man (1960), set the groundwork
for decades of research in both sociology and political science, particularly
in emphasizing the social and economic
foundations of liberal democracy.
Two of Lipset’s most influential
articles, “Some Social Requisites of
Democracy” (1959) and, with Stein
Rokkan, “Cleavage Structures, Party
Systems, and Voter Alignments” (1967)
illustrate the complexity and range of
his thinking. Lipset begins with the
correlation of stable democracy with
wealth, industrialization, and education.
But he adds important refinements. For
example, the survival in some nations
of traditional symbols like monarchies
curbed reaction from the conservative
classes. He also shows that when major
cleavages attendant on modernization,
such as between religion and secularism
or between capital and labor, came in
stages rather than all together, the timing
enabled emerging democratic institutions to gain legitimacy by resolving
each crisis in sequence. Both essays, like
so much of Lipset’s oeuvre, bear rereading; they are much more nuanced and
interesting than the boiled-down versions most sociologists encounter today,
and their arguments remain relevant.
With his colleague at Berkeley,
Reinhard Bendix, Lipset produced Social
Mobility in Industrial Society (1959) and
the canonical edited collection, Class,
Status, and Power (1965), works that
brought cross-national and historical
comparison to the emerging field of
stratification research. In The First New
Nation (1963), an important work for
historians as well as sociologists, Lipset
further developed his ideas about what
made America different, focusing on
cultural and institutional patterns set at
the country’s founding. He continued
exploring ideas and data on the question through American Exceptionalism
(1996) and, with Gary Marks, in It Didn’t
Happen Here (2001).
Letting the Evidence Speak
Lipset was a major intellectual force,
often a foundational figure, in other
fields as well, such as the study of higher
education, the politics of academics and
intellectuals, Latin American development, and American Jewry. He wrote
prolifically, not to bolster his reputation or to press a theoretical claim, but
to contribute ideas and findings to the
vital intellectual debates of his times.
He paid serious attention to evidence,
often using an eclectic mix of data and
theory, whatever would work empirically. For example, observing that social
mobility was no greater in the United
States than in Europe convinced him that
America’s exceptionalism was due to
its distinctive historical experiences and
the values they shaped, rather than its
unique social structure. Ross Perot’s 1992
third-party presidential bid made him
realize that he had overestimated the
influence of America’s electoral system
in inhibiting socialism; the United States
could have successful third parties, but
not social-democratic, labor, or socialist
ones. Lipset’s memoir, “Steady Work,”
in the 1996 Annual Review of Sociology,
gives a rich account of his intellectual
development.
As a teacher, Marty worked with and
sponsored a diverse range of eminent
students, including James Coleman,
Maurice Zeitlin, Gary T. Marx, Gary
Marks, Immanuel Wallerstein, Bill
Schneider, Juan Linz, Theda Skocpol,
Larry Diamond, and many, many others.
Marty was overflowing with ideas
and fascinated by all sorts of information. He had a voracious mind, and,
having overcome dyslexia, became a
speed reader. He could be spotted in
Harvard’s William James Hall, walking
from his office to the men’s room and
back, flipping through the pages of a
book, having absorbed much of it by the
time he returned to his office. And he
enthusiastically shared what he learned
with all comers, from eminent scholar to
graduate student.
Large in Size and Spirit
None of the accolades and honors that
Lipset received over the years or since
his death capture what those who knew
him recognized as most important of
all: Marty was a wonderful person. He
had a fulfilling personal life. He married
the former Elsie Braun, with whom he
had three children—David, Daniel, and
Cici—and six grandchildren. Elsie, who
helped Marty remain the same boy from
the Bronx and rooted in his Jewish tradition, died in 1987. In 1990 he married the
former Sydnee Guyer and embarked on
a second happy marriage. Together with
Sydnee, he continued to be active in the
Jewish community and in Democratic
Party politics.
Marty was, in every respect, a
mensch—a decent, honorable person.
He was also always down-to-earth,
warm, unpretentious, artless, and for
one of such accomplishment, remarkably
modest. He was, as his wife Sydnee has
said, just “a very sweet man.” Person
after person told her that it was thanks
to Marty that they finished their dissertations, got their books published,
landed jobs, or gained tenure. Theda
Skocpol has pointed out that Marty
treated women with professional respect
and supported them even before the
women’s movement. Others have
noted that, despite tensions resulting
from Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement
(Marty was an advocate of debate
rather than direct action), he generously
mentored students of all political stripes.
Physically large, Marty Lipset was even
larger in spirit.
He is tremendously missed.
Colleagues Pay Tribute
to Seymour Martin Lipset
Long before I knew him personally
I found inspiration in Seymour Martin
Lipset’s work in my undergraduate
political science classes at Antioch
College. My mentor, Heinz Eulau, highlighted Lipset’s work among the scholars
who engaged in empirical research and
whose theoretical contributions were
combining to transform political speculation into a social science. Thus it was
not surprising that when I chose a thesis
topic in graduate school, it was Lipset’s
work on the printers union (Union
Democracy, written with Martin Trow and
James Coleman), conceived as a “deviant
case analysis,” that provided a methodological model for my study of women
lawyers (then three percent of the
profession) and a subsequent study of
black professional women (a percentage
too small even to calculate). Studying
uniqueness—or “exceptionalism”—provided special insights into social structure, as we know from studying Lipset’s
later works.
The luster of “Lipset the scholar” was
matched by the personal qualities of
“Lipset the friend.” I got to know Marty
personally through mutual friends in
New York and more closely during
several sojourns at Stanford at the Center
for Advanced Study and the Law School.
Though casually acquainted at first, he,
and his late wife Elsie, extended generous hospitality to me and my family, and
he became a professional advocate, as
well, as he had for many other women
scholars during his career. An even closer
relationship developed with Marty and
his incredibly gracious and warm wife
Sydnee, who only last summer helped
craft an intellectually exciting session on
his work at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Association during my presidency.
Marty’s personal generosity extended
to social generosity through his untiring
work on behalf of the worldwide Jewish
community and other social causes.
We will miss him, but his personal
and intellectual legacy lives on.
Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Graduate Center,
CUNY
ggg
Seymour Martin Lipset was
Whitmanesque in his amplitude—in
physical and social stature, in the
breadth of his vision, and in his passion
for America. The virtues, paradoxes, and
contradictions of America are key to his
persona and work. (A longer version of
these remarks is at garymarx.net.)
Marty provided me with research
support, entry into the profession, and
a thesis topic analyzing 1938 public
opinion data on Father Coughlin, which
provided Marty one-third of his article
contrasting Coughlin, Joseph McCarthy,
and the John Birch Society. Not a bad
deal by the standards of 1962.
Our paths additionally overlapped in
Cambridge, Palo Alto, and Washington,
DC—overlaps aided by his continual
support over four decades.
A multitude of empirical indicators
establishes Marty’s place among the predominant social scientists of the last half
century. I note five gifts Marty offered
as a partial role model to this aspiring
sociologist. These were formative for
many of the 37 moral imperatives I have
suggested to other aspiring sociologists
(The American Sociologist 1997).
1) In the beginning there are the
questions. Marty had the vision, courage
(chutzpah?), and ability to frame enduring socially and theoretically meaningful
questions (across societies and history
and to pursue these across his career).
He started with empirical variation
(what is and is not or what might have
been or might become). This required
historical and comparative international
material and following the questions not
the method.
2) Two cheers for science. Marty
shared the enlightenment faith in a
positivist social science that could
provide answers and be used for social
betterment. He was no mindless empiricist. The questions he raised required
attending to the empirical record and
cross-observer analysis and commen-
tary, but they were never fully answered
by empirical inquiry, no matter how
systematic.
Marty was like a pointillist painter
rather than a laboratory scientist. He
judiciously selected among the wealth of
possible empirical details to offer larger
understandings and develop arguments
(not unlike a trial attorney). The integrative and synthetic total goes beyond the
individual components chosen for inclusion. Standards of evidence and logic,
however imperfect can take us beyond
conclusions based on tradition or power.
3) Multiple roles in their appropriate places. Marty was acutely aware of
the difference and tensions (but also the
links) between scholarship and activism.
4) What makes Marty run? Lipset had
an insatiable curiosity, and unbounded
enthusiasm for understanding politics
and social life and a bigger-than-life (or
a big as it gets) need for achievement
and capacity for hard work. In spite of
his religion, his productivity gives new
meaning to the Protestant Ethic.
5) The virtues of talk. Marty had a
hot, Talmudic, New York gift for animated, energized, erudite, discursive,
free-association conversation, if often in
the form of an encyclopedic monologue
or a self-interrogatory soliloquy. This
See Tribute, page 7
February 2007 Footnotes
Sociologists Serving as Foreign Ambassadors . . .
From Afghanistan to Germany
to America and Back
A
her country—by way of Germany.
sociologist from Afghanistan,
She lived there and became fluent in
Maliha Zulfacar, has taken a sabGerman until 1985 when she left for the
batical from an American university,
United States. She returned to Germany
California Polytechnic State University,
to earn her PhD (1997) in sociology at
to move to Berlin to be
Paerborn University. Her
the Afghan ambassadissertation, A Comparative
dor to Germany. While
Analysis of Immigration
she is the first woman
Policy and Its Influence on
appointed as an ambasImmigrants Residing in
sador from Afghanistan,
Germany and in the United
she is not the first sociStates, later became a book
ologist to do so, as Roy L.
on Afghan immigrants. In
Austin, Pennsylvania State
her academic and profesUniversity, is a U.S. ambassional life she has focused
sador as well.
on Afghanistan, immigra“It is a great honor for
tion, and gender, globalizame,” said Zulfacar, who
tion, and democratization.
began her appointment in
Returning Home
September. “Having been
the first woman appointed
For years, Zulfacar,
as an ambassador from
Maliha Zulfacar
who was born in Kabul,
Afghanistan gives me
dreamed of her homeland
the opportunity to serve my country of
but felt isolated from it. Then, when the
birth and also to demonstrate that when
United States invaded in 2001, Zulfacar
Afghan women are given the chance for
launched a fundraising drive to buy
education, they too will be able to parchairs for an Afghan school and helped
ticipate effectively in the reconstruction
to open a day-care center at Kabul
of the country.”
University, where she began to work as
Zulfacar’s history with Germany
a part-time teacher. Since the fall of the
spans more than two decades when she
Taliban, she has been leading a crossescaped Afghanistan as a young mother
continental life. During the academic
in 1979—the year the Soviets invaded
year, she teaches as an ethnic studies
professor and coordinates fundraisers
for Afghan’s education system. During
the summers, she teaches social science and establishes programs at Kabul
University.
In between teaching, traveling,
volunteering, and fundraising, Zulfacar
produced Kabul Transit, a documentary
that explores the soul of a city devastated by nearly three decades of war. The
documentary, which was accepted into
the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival, follows city residents in the course of their
daily lives and listens to stories of their
past and hopes for their future, according to Zulfacar.
Since returning to
Afghanistan, not only had
Zulfacar worked to rebuild
the nation’s higher education system, but she was
also actively encouraging
Afghan women to pursue
higher education at Kabul
University and abroad.
Zulfacar has said that she
feels like a global citizen,
having spent 23 years in
Kabul and another 23 in the
United States.
Extraordinary and to the Republic of
Trinidad and Tobago.
Prior to his nomination by President
George W. Bush, Ambassador Austin
was Associate Professor of Sociology,
Justice, and African American Studies at
Pennsylvania State University. Between
1994-98, he served as Director of the
Crime, Law, and Justice Program at Penn
State, and in July 2001 became Director
of the Africana Research Center. He is
the author of numerous publications on
the Caribbean, including Trinidad and
Tobago.
Austin was born in Kingstown, St.
Vincent and the Grenadines. His work
experience has rarely
been monotonous, as he
held positions there as a
customs officer, secondary
school teacher, carnival
bandleader, and captain of
the national soccer team,
and was selected for trials
for the national cricket
squad.
In 1964, he moved to the
United States to attend Yale
University, where he was
a classmate of President
Bush. He graduated with
a BA in sociology, and then
ggg
Roy L. Austin
went on to the University
From America to Trinidad
of Washington to earn his
MA and PhD (1973) in sociology. With
In addition to Zulfacar, another socidegrees in hand, Austin became a U.S.
ologist is currently an ambassador. Since
citizen.
October 2001, Roy L. Austin has been
serving as the United States Ambassador
Tribute, from page 6
style informed and dazzled listeners, especially those more accustomed to a laidback
cool Southern California conversational
style.
Gary T. Marx, Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ggg
Seymour Martin Lipset was the
quintessential sociologist. He lived and
breathed the subject with an ease and
naturalness that often escaped the great
minds of the discipline. Sociation on all
levels was an endless source of puzzles
and intellectual excitement for him, but
his reflections were never alienating, never
became a substitute for being social. He
was always there, a big, chubby, warm
man, unpretentious and homey with an
absorbing gaze that seemed to go on and
off, but did not really. For what seemed
like distraction in conversation was
simply his way of bringing his enormous
knowledge and powers of concentration
to bear on everything you were saying, as
you discovered at the slightest weakness
or contradiction in your argument.
We became friends not long after
I arrived in America in 1970, mainly
because of common interests: historical
sociology; modernization and development; freedom; ethnicity; the role of
socio-cultural values; problems of continuity and change. Marty had a lifelong
academic interest in the history of socialism in North America, one that originated
in his socialist early years. We bonded
on this common Marxian coming of age,
especially after he learned of my friendship with C.L.R. James during my London
day; James having been a legendary figure
in American communism during Marty’s
youth. He disagreed with, but respected
my skepticism about ethnic movements,
and we taught a course together on the
subject in the mid-70s that was one of my
most memorable experiences at Harvard.
My greatest debt to him, however, was
his historical sociology. It is sad indeed
that I have to remind the sociology community that Seymour Matin Lipset was
one of the great historical sociologists of
the twentieth century, so dishonored and
gratuitously neglected has he been by
those who claim to lead this sub-field.
Marty’s reputation as one of the giants
of twentieth century sociology will surely
survive this disciplinary snub. The sheer
power and originality of his ideas, the
broad sweep of his interests and the social
significance of all that he wrote, ensures
that in less dogmatic times he will be
viewed on par with Weber as an historical
sociologist, and as one of the great shapers
of our discipline.
Orlando Patterson, Harvard University
ggg
I had the privilege of serving as Vice
President during Marty Lipset’s reign
as ASA President. Although I had long
admired his work, I had never met him
personally. I quickly discovered that he
was not only a scholar of immense intellect but also a warm and witty human
being. In the years that followed our
service to ASA, Marty became a friend.
He was always more than generous with
his time, willing to read my work and
offer advice during my own tenure as
president. I am proud to have known this
remarkable man who had contributed so
much to the discipline and to his many
students and professional colleagues.
Jill Quadagno, Florida State University
ggg
Marty Lipset combined astuteness
about the world around him with a critical
self-awareness. He knew who he was and
approached people and subject matters with a sense of optimism and good
humor, confident of the outcome. When
I wrote the Footnotes biography when
Marty became President of ASA, without
seeing what I had written, he suggested
that I title it “The World Is His Oyster”
(September 1992). He was an optimist, a
quality that would inevitably distinguish
him from those conservatives, some of
whom he had known from college days,
with whom unknowing critics tried to
lump him. Marty was a man hungry
for knowledge, friendships, and new
experiences and prepared to work hard
to achieve those goals.
In Marty’s contacts with young
people, whether as professor, colleague,
or professional associate, he was open
to their ideas and warm in his feelings,
expressed in a continuing loyalty. For
many, those early contacts would be
the basis for a longstanding friendship,
as it has been for me. Although never a
student (though indirectly I was, since
his student Juan Linz was my dissertation advisor), I became acquainted with
him through a colleague who wanted to
ensure that Marty would make a contribution to his edited book on professions. I was enlisted to finish the paper
and when Marty and I subsequently
met, it began the kind of friendship that
so many other students report. When I
completed my dissertation Marty both
suggested a publisher and then wrote
an introduction to the book. It helped in
cementing our ties that I was a student of
Canadian society and politics, the same
milieu where he had begun his own
scholarly work and for which he would
retain an abiding interest and affection.
Mildred A. Schwartz, New York University
and University of Illinois-Chicago
ggg
When Marty Lipset arrived at George
Mason University in the mid-1990s, he
had already earned a position of unrivalled distinction. Yet, when looking
back now on his many contributions,
what strikes Marty’s former colleagues at
Mason is his sheer modesty. So unassuming was Marty that it was as if he simply
refused to accept his singular status, and
insisted on receiving the same treatment
as anyone else. One former administrator still remembers Marty deeply and
repeatedly apologizing for requesting
a first-class ticket for a cross-Atlantic
flight. So physically imposing a man
was Marty that he simply needed the leg
room, but he loathed the symbolic meaning that first-class status might imply.
To know Marty was to engage a man
whose appetite for ideas and whose
commitment to the truth were virtually
boundless. Marty would write energetically in the mornings, arriving on campus full of energy for the remainder of
the day, eager to teach, talk, and engage
in hearty debate with anyone who cared
to think seriously about the issues—colleagues, graduate students, cleaning
workers, administrative staff. Rank did
not matter to him at all nor did gender.
Because he knew how inhospitable the
academy could be, especially to those
it viewed as outsiders, Marty went out
of his way to encourage women scholars, often offering close and careful yet
encouraging responses to their work at
key moments in their careers. One of the
most accomplished sociologists of our
time, a leading scholar now at Harvard,
recalls Marty going out of his way to
encourage her work at a critical moment.
Her debt to Marty is shared by countless
others, women and men alike. He leaves
a small army of admirers here at Mason,
in public policy and sociology. He was a
force of nature.
Steve Vallas, George Mason University
F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
Lagos, from page 1
Radicals, Socialists, Communists, and
creation of the Concertación, the alliance
Christian Leftists, the same coalition that
of Christian Democrats and ex-Popular
backed Allende’s successful presidential
Unity leftists that would defeat Pinochet
campaign the following year on a platin the 1988 plebiscite and govern Chile
form of a “democratic road to socialism.”
for two decades.
Under Allende, Lagos was a United
Transition to Democracy
Nations (UN) delegate and government manager of the nationalized Banco
Lagos was a leader in the incepEdwards. In 1973, Lagos became head of
tion of that dialogue and he would be
FLACSO, the Latin American
a key figure in the formaregional social science
tion of the Concertación
graduate school in Santiago
and its governments of the
sponsored by the UN, a posi1990s. In the 1977 confertion he held when the violent
ence volume that he comilitary coup of September
edited, Lagos rethought the
11, 1973, ended Allende’s via
Popular Unity’s economic
chilena and with it Chile’s
program, prefiguring the
“model democracy.” In the
Concertación’s combination
perilous aftermath of the
of market economics with
coup, Lagos courageously
targeted government social
tried to protect his many
spending to help the poor
Latin American leftist stuand to humanize Chile’s
dents and faculty from the
neoliberal model.
Pinochet regime’s repression.
In 1979, Lagos returned
Lagos became an obstacle to
to Chile to lead PREALC,
Richard Lagos
the military junta’s effort to
the UN regional program
liquidate “subversive” views,
on employment, and to join
and by early 1974, his own safety was in
Vector, a Socialist think tank drawing up
jeopardy. Lagos moved FLACSO and his
plans for a transition to democracy. This
family to Argentina and later accepted a
marked his transition from academic
visiting professorship at the University
and international functionary to political
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. There he
actor and leader. Lagos joined Allende’s
co-directed a pivotal conference attended
Socialist party then in a process of “renoby moderate Christian Democrat and
vation” under the influence of European
Popular Unity leaders on the lessons
exiles and its own post-coup reflections,
from the Chilean tragedy. That meetwhich would transform Chile’s Socialists
ing began a dialogue between erstwhile
into social democrats similar to Felipe
enemies, leading in the 1980s to the
Gonzalez or Tony Blair. In 1983, Lagos
resigned his UN position and became
the dictator’s authoritarian constitution.
president of the Democratic Alliance
Lagos argued there was no alternative
of Christian Democrats, Radicals, and
and emerged as a leader in the 17-party
[renovated] Socialists, a Concertación
coalition against Pinochet, including the
predecessor.
Party for Democracy (PPD). As its first
The economic crisis of 1982-85 caused
president, Lagos made his famous April
by the neoliberal policies of Pinochet’s
1988 primetime TV appearance in which
advisers provoked widespread social
he denounced Pinochet and gave others
protest, which raised illusory hopes that
courage to oppose the dictator.
the dictator would fall. After Communist
Lagos played a central role during the
guerrillas tried to assassinate Pinochet in
plebiscite campaign, and was instrumen1986, the dictator unleashed a new wave
tal in winning both Chilean Communist
of repression, closing opposition media
and U.S. government cooperation to
and detaining
prevent another
democratic
coup. The “No”
opposition lead- The failure to end the Pinochet dictatorship won a decisive
ers, including
victory and
with bullets left only one way to oust
Lagos, whose
Pinochet reluchim: playing by the rules that the dictator
detention and
tantly accepted
interrogation
his defeat.
established that provided for a 1988 “yes/
evoked interna- no” plebiscite on Pinochet’s continued reign.
A New Day
tional protests.
A year
Playing by the Rules
later, Patricio Aylwin, the Christian
The failure to end the Pinochet
Democratic candidate of the
dictatorship with bullets left only one
Concertación, was elected Chile’s
way to oust him: playing by the rules
President, and Lagos became his
that the dictator established that proMinister of Education. Lagos gradually
vided for a 1988 “yes/no” plebiscite on
pushed the limits of Pinochet’s legacy,
Pinochet’s continued reign. If voters
working from within to begin to change
approved, he would be president of
the tenor and character of schooling in
Chile for another decade; if not, there
Chile. As Education Minister, Lagos set
would be competitive elections for
a strategy for change that his successors
president and a new congress. Many
continued.
on the Left opposed participation in the
In 1994, Lagos became Minister of
plebiscite, expecting fraud, as in previPublic Works for Christian Democrat
ous Pinochet referendums, and fearing
Eduardo Frei. Here too Lagos demonthat their participation would legitimate
See Lagos, page 9
New York, from page 1
has reversed that inclusive sentiment.
After September 11, 2001, the climate
for undocumented immigrants in New
York City has worsened. Entering the
country—legally or illegally—has
become much more difficult, and
undocumented immigrants have a
harder time living here since they can
no longer open bank accounts or obtain
driver's licenses. Recent Census data
and a study from the Pew Research
Center both point to a slowing of
immigration since about 1997. Yet,
immigrants and their children continue
to change New York City as they have
since before its founding in 1897.
Racial Segregation and the Black
Middle Class
The African Americans in New York
City are highly segregated from other
groups. Within this segregation, there
is a burgeoning black middle class in
Southeast Queens as well parts of the
Northeast Bronx and recently the beginnings of one in parts of Harlem. Median
black households in Queens have higher
incomes than whites, according to 2005
Census data. Queens is the only large
county in the United States (with a population above 65,000) where this is true.
The neighborhoods around St. Albans,
Cambria, and Laurelton are especially
affluent and virtually 100 percent black,
while large and poverty-stricken areas
with high concentrations of black population exist in Manhattan, Brooklyn,
and the Bronx. Though parts of Harlem
recently have had an economic rebound,
the difference in income between blacks
and whites in Manhattan is the highest
of any large county in the United States.
Rising Income Inequality
Areas of wealth exist around the boroughs, but New York City and especially
Manhattan, remain economically stratified
with income inequality dwarfing that of
most third world countries. Neighbors
and peers of Mayor Michael Bloomberg
in the Upper East Side zip code of 10021
supplied the most political donations to
both the Bush and Kerry campaigns in
2004 of any zip code in the country. The
rich folks constituting the top 20 percent
of Manhattan’s population have about
50 times the annual income (more than
$350,000 on average) of the poor folks in
the bottom 20 percent. Income inequality within the very small geographic area
of Manhattan is a growing trend, and it
seems there is little New York City can do
about it.
Indeed, recent changes in rent stabilization laws have meant that much of
the Upper West Side (the area extending
north of Lincoln Center through Columbia
to about 122nd Street west of Central
Park and Morningside Drive), which has
the highest concentration of Manhattan
sociologists, has seen soaring incomes as
the middle class (here defined as those
with household incomes below $175,000)
can no longer afford the area. Unregulated
apartments in Manhattan fetch about
$1,000 per square foot to purchase, and
about three-quarters of rental apartments
of any size rent for more than $2,000 per
month. The recent sale of Stuyvesant
Town and Peter Cooper village (two
connected post-war middle class developments with about 11,000 apartments)
means that the trend towards unregulated
apartments will accelerate. These taxabated developments rent two bedroom
apartments to current tenants for $1,500
per month and to new tenants, when the
current ones leave, for well over $3,000 per
month.
Starting salaries at Wall Street law
firms are nearing $150,000 per year, while
partners take home several million dollars.
This year, bonuses in Wall Street investment banks, brokerages, and hedge funds
are expected to set a new record. Indeed,
there are recent reports of bidding wars
for apartments that cost as much as $10 to
$20 million, while $400,000 Ferraris are in
short supply.
Some of the truly affluent families
maintain at least one domicile in
Manhattan, and Manhattan is in the
midst of a baby boom fueled mostly by
non-Hispanic white families. Indeed, the
median income of such families, who
have a child below five years old, is about
$285,000.
Middle Class Exodus
Many of the middle and upper middle
class are moving outside of New York City
into the New York metropolitan area, now
farther from the city than in the past. The
movement of people and jobs undoubtedly increased in the aftermath of the
2001 terrorist attacks, but the trend began
in earnest after World War II, especially
among the affluent who sought employment, housing, city services, and improved
quality of life outside of city limits.
New York City is increasingly the home
of the foreign-born, as well as native-born
and foreign-born African Americans and
Hispanics. Recently the number of African
Americans has decreased, and without
immigration it would have decreased
even more. Such residents, in fact, are
more often in need of education, decent
health care, reasonable employment,
public transportation, etc. While the
wealthy take care of themselves and the
middle class leave New York City, new
residents and those on the bottom become
the core recipients of vital city services
and are those most affected by changes
to them. Despite its disproportionate tax
burden, the city struggles to fulfill these
needs. Recent economic policies (e.g.,
the Campaign for Fiscal Equity school
funding case, the abolition of the commuter tax, and the big development plans
for Ground Zero and for the West Side)
contribute to the impression that city
residents and their needs are subordinate
to the interests of suburban and upstate
residents.
Mayor Bloomberg proudly promotes
his city as “a luxury product” and seems
unconcerned about the loss of the middle
class. But he is really speaking about
Manhattan (excluding most of Harlem,
East Harlem, Washington Heights,
and Chinatown) and neighborhoods
in the other Boroughs that are becoming Manhattanesque (e.g., Park Slope,
Brooklyn Heights, and Williamsburg in
Brooklyn, and Astoria and Long Island
City in Queens). The areas where the poor
live—primarily minorities or immigrants
or both—are also not considered.
Andrew A. Beveridge is Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate
Center of CUNY. This article draws on his
analyses that have appeared in the New
York Times (for whom he has consulted
since 1993) and from his more than 50
columns on New York trends written for the
Gotham Gazette (an online publication of
Citizens Union Foundation). See <www.
gothamgazette.com/archive/demographics>.
February 2007 Footnotes
Lagos, from page 8
strated administrative and executive
skills. As a social scientist in politics,
Lagos analyzed problems with detachment and exhibits more head than heart,
although his policies are informed by
social sensibility. As minister, Lagos
demonstrated that civilian government
is as efficient as military government
and that democracies can accomplish as
much, or more, as dictatorships.
By 1998, Lagos was ready to be
Chile’s president, and a majority was
ready to vote for him, as made clear by
his landslide victory over the Christian
Democratic rival in the primary. Despite
an economic recession and the Right’s
overwhelming financial advantage
and media monopoly, Lagos defeated
Joaquín Lavín in 2000 to become Chile’s
first Socialist president since Allende’s
violent overthrow.
operations of the seriously ill who could
not afford private care.
Working from Within
As president, the lifelong educator
and former Education Minister made
education a priority, in part because
education was the Concertación’s longterm solution to inequality. Between
1990 and the end of his presidency,
public educational expenditures quadrupled, with an increase in special
assistance for schools and children in
poor districts, ranging from free preschool to university scholarships.
The former Minister of Public
Works also continued to undertake and
complete major development projects
as president. In social terms, the most
important may have been extending the
Santiago Metro from the city center to
the working-class suburbs. This meant
President of Chile
that poor Chileans who previously
spent four to five hours a day commutLagos was determined that his
presidency would have a different
ing on multiple overcrowded buses
ending. At first, it seemed as if finishnow commute in less than half that time
in relative comfort at a lower cost. This
ing his six years in office and handing
major extension of the Santiago Metro is
it over to his elected successor was all
a typical Lagos initiative—starting with
he would accomplish. Problems Lagos
faced included an inherited economic
what is already there and working from
recession, an Argentine crisis, and
the inside—to push the envelope and
derive a social benefit while creating
ideological business elites who refused
jobs and not incurring an unacceptable
to cooperate with “Socialist” president
financial cost. A pragmatic reformer,
even though his socialism was closer
to their neoliberalism than to Allende’s
who believes that the way to build a
Marxism. Also, the Right had veto power
better world is to renovate the existing structures, Lagos proved an expert
over his legislation through the Pinochet
renovator.
Constitution’s appointed senators, and
The Lagos administration was
his Christian Democratic partners were
often reluctant allies.
also notable for its legal reforms. A
Yet, Lagos never lost confidence in his
2005 Constitutional reform abolishing Pinochet’s appointed senators and
presidency. Gradually, his government
restoring the elected president’s right
began to gain ground and win respect.
to fire the armed forces commanders
The last half of his presidency would be
his best—and his presidency Chile’s best.
came close to completing the transition
Lagos had been elected on a platform
to democracy that Lagos had played so
prominent a role in launching during
of “growth with equality” and talked
about the need for Chile
the 1980s. Other legal
reforms eased authorito address an inequaltarian restrictions on
ity so extreme that
people spoke of “two
free speech, modernized the criminal
Chiles.” (Chile was the
second most unequal
justice code, and modified Pinochet’s procountry in the world’s
business labor code.
most unequal region).
Inequality, a Pinochet
These reforms required
compromises to win
legacy, remained high
under the Concertación
the support of rightist
senators in order to
despite a long economic
pass, and their passage
boom and targeted
social policies that
is another example of
his ability to work from
dramatically reduced the
country’s poverty rate
within the system for
change.
from nearly 40% to less
For many Chileans,
than 20%.
Lagos concentrated
the most important
Salvador Allende
legal reform under
much of his government’s social spending on Chile’s poor,
Lagos was the country’s first divorce
law. Divorced and married to a divorwith positive results, although he was
cee, Lagos was very aware of the
unable to reduce inequality. Seventy
percent of his public housing budget,
importance of the right of Chileans,
especially abused spouses, to divorce.
for example, was focused on the poorest
30% of the population and he fulfilled
He pressed for the law over the opposition of the Catholic Church and leadhis promise to construct decent permaing Christian Democrats. It was one of
nent housing for the 105,000 families
living in shacks in temporary campamenseveral Lagos initiatives that addressed
issues of gender, among them his effort
tos, part of the half million housing units
built by his government. Public health
to bring more women into his cabinet,
including in key “male” posts such as
was another area where Lagos’ social
Foreign Minister and Defense Minister.
spending targeted the needy. Under
Lagos, public primary care consultaSignificantly, the women he named to
those positions emerged as the leading
tions doubled. To deal with the extensive
delays in surgical operations in Chile’s
candidates to succeed him as president,
including current president Michele
underfunded public health care, his govBachelet.
ernment initiated a program to pay for
Yesterday and Tomorrow
After the Presidency
The defining moment of Lagos’s
By the time Lagos left the presipresidency came in 2003, on the 30th
dency in 2006, the economy was boomanniversary of Pinochet’s military coup
ing, most of his projects had come to
that ended the government (and life)
fruition, his approval rating was 70%,
of Allende and began 16 years of state
and he was judged the most successful
terror in which thousands were “disappresident in Chilean history. Moreover,
peared” and tens of thousands tortured.
he was able to deliver the presidential
While the first Concertación government
sash to his hand-picked Socialist suchad created a commission to establish
cessor, Bachelet.
the fate of the “disappeared,” Chile had
After completing his term, Lagos
never confronted the far larger number
was asked to assume another presiof tortured, many still walking the same
dency, the Club of Madrid, a private
streets as their torturers—and most
organization that emerged out of
political analysts doubted that Chile
the 2001 conference on Democratic
ever would. In 2003, however, Lagos
Transition and Consolidation, held in
announced the formaMadrid. The Club
tion of a truth commisbrings together
Lagos told his people that they
sion to establish what
former heads of
had happened to forstate and leading
had to confront this traumatic
mer political prisoners
past because “Without yesterday academic experts to
claiming to have been
assist countries with
tortured. With moving there is no tomorrow.”
“critical elements
eloquence, Lagos told
of their democratic
his people that they had to confront this
transition or consolidation.” Its memtraumatic past because “Without yesterbers include former world leaders Bill
day there is no tomorrow.”
Clinton, Vaclav Havel, and Mikhail
The strong conviction that Chile could
Gorbachev. This invitation reflects
no longer suppress its past led Lagos
the high esteem with which Lagos is
to use the 30th anniversary to revisit it
viewed by international peers and
and to rehabilitate Allende as a repubreflects his unusual ability to bring
lican hero who died defending Chilean
together the worlds of social science
democracy. Lagos erected a statue of
and policy making, a strength throughAllende outside the presidential palace
out his career.
and symbolically reopened its side door,
Next Step
which Pinochet had ordered closed
because it had been used by Allende’s
Lagos’ career seems far from over.
aides to escape.
His name has been mentioned as a
A year later, the Commission made
future secretary-general of the UN, and
public its report that at least 28,000
as a future president of Chile, where
Chileans (including pregnant women
Lagos would be a strong favorite if he
and children) had been savagely torchose to run again. It is not clear that
tured, in more than 1,000 sites, by the
he will seek another presidential term.
Chilean armed forces. In the face of
The next Chilean chief executive, howindisputable evidence that these human
ever, will preside over the Bicentennial
rights abuses were official military
of its independence, an occasion that
regime policy, the new army commander
will define what Chile has accomformally apologized to the victims on
plished in the past and point the way
behalf of his institution. Even rightist
to its future. Lagos was one of the first
politicians who had denied the accusain Chile to focus on the Bicentennial as
tions before now competed to propose
an important symbolic event. Presiding
compensation for the leftist victims. This
over Chile’s Bicentennial might be too
was a major step as well in the army’s
tempting for him to resist. After all, he
distancing itself from Pinochet and its
has stressed that “without yesterday
transformation into the army of a democthere is no tomorrow,” and that reflectracy, a process Lagos numbered among
ing on the past can make a better future
his most important accomplishments.
possible.
Lagos is also justifiably proud of
Peter Winn is Professor of History and
Chile’s international achievements durDirector of Latin American Studies at
ing his presidency. Since his UN days,
Tufts University. He is also a Senior
Lagos has been a strong internationalResearch Associate at Columbia Universiist. One hallmark of his presidency was
ty’s Institute of Latin American Studies.
Chile’s high profile in international
He is the author or editor of several books
affairs, particularly remarkable for a
on Latin America, including the critically
small country. In 2004, Chile became
acclaimed Weavers of Revolution and
the first South American country to
Victims of the Chilean Miracle.
host a summit meeting of the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
organization, and negotiated free trade
agreements with the United States, the
European Union, and South Korea (its
first with a Latin American nation). Chile
played a leading role in the international
intervention in Haiti that culminated in
a democratically elected government.
Moreover, Lagos’s chief minister was
elected president of the Organization
of American States (OAS) over a U.S.sociological
backed candidate. Under Lagos, Chile
perspectives on
was elected to a seat on the UN Security
contemporary politics
Council and in 2003 was pressured by
Washington to endorse its Iraq invasion.
Instead, Lagos supported a multilateral
102nd ASA ANNUAL MEETING
approach that would give the UN a
AUGUST 11–14, 2007 | NEW YORK
chance to negotiate a peaceful solution.
Is Another
World
Possible?
10 F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
A Mathematical Sociologist’s Tribute to Comte:
Sociology as Science
Nobel Prize-winning elementary particle physicist Murray Gell-Mann once challenged his colleagues rhetorically,
“Imagine how hard physics would be if particles could think.”
by John Angle, Inequality Process Institute*
W
hen I taught sociology, I introduced sociology as a science-in-intention
although one that at present was not far
along as a mathematical science. I thus
affirmed Auguste Comte’s “positivist”
vision of sociology, a word he coined to
name a science of society like physics.
More generally I was affirming the agenda
of the Enlightenment to discover and
understand scientifically processes of the
natural world of which society is a part.
Benjamin Franklin, a leading contributor to
the Enlightenment, saw society as a subject
for science and engineering. He wrote in
1780 that he wished he had been born later
in time so he might see future scientific
marvels such as the levitation of masses,
life extension, and something beyond these
in difficulty: “O that ... Science were in
as fair a way of Improvement, that Men
would cease to be Wolves to one another,
and that human Beings would at length
learn ... Humanity.”
Positivism Unleashed?
Some sociologists share my enthusiasm
for Comte’s vision. I recognize, accept,
and value other approaches to sociology. Positivism would be more attractive if sociologists thought it would lead
to discoveries. Dubiousness about that
possibility is understandable. In several
decades, Comte’s vision of sociology as a
mathematical science will be two centuries
old. What would sociologists say to a student who asks for an example of a success
of Comte’s positivist vision? There have
been successes, but little leaps to mind if
you are not a mathematical sociologist. So,
the comments of Bruce Keith, U.S. Military
Academy, in his December 2005 Footnotes
article assessing sociology’s future are
understandable. He wrote, “I surmise that
sociology is more akin to a profession than
a science because I find no evidence that
members of our discipline have discovered
any law or principle that is applicable
temporally across social contexts.”
The length of the silence to Prof. Keith’s
year-old assertion reveals how Comte’s
vision has faded. To many sociologists it
may seem yesteryear’s future, a “mono-
rail” that never found a place in the present. In 1988, New York Times culture critic
Richard Bernstein “panned” the sociology
on display at the ASA Annual Meeting
and then quoted a sociologist to the effect
that sociology will never be a science like
physics and those expecting it are fooling
themselves. Perhaps not entirely coincidental, a few sociology programs were shut
down in years following.
Someone taking Prof. Keith’s point of
view might very well ask when Comte’s
vision of a science of society like physics
is going to arrive. Would it suffice if there
were a discovery of a process, describable
by a simple mathematical formula, operating in all societies? It would be harder still
to ignore if that process impacts people,
and how they relate to each other, in ways
of interest to sociologists.
Unequal Math
I maintain that there is at least one
such discovery, known as the Inequality
Process (IP). This discovery mathematically
describes a universal process of competition in human populations. Unlike popular
notions of Social Darwinism—which Vince
Lombardi’s “winning is the only thing”
characterization of football describes
well—in the simplest version of the
Inequality Process (IP), everyone loses as
often as they win. In the long term, those
who do best in this simplest IP are the
robust losers. The IP was abstracted from
G. Lenski’s (1966) speculation that the
more productive worker loses less in the
competition for wealth.
Economist Thomas Lux (2005) pointed
out to an international conference of econophysicists that the findings about income
distribution presented in multiple papers
at the conference had been anticipated 20
years earlier in the first paper published
on the Inequality Process. “Econophysics”
and “sociophysics” are the extension of the
field of statistical mechanics in physics into
the social sciences. Statistical mechanics is
about how macro-level phenomena emerge
out of micro-level interactions between
particles in a large population of particles.
Essentially, its subject matter is what
sociologists call macro-micro theory. The
disciplinary line between sociology and
economics is institutionalized and an imag-
Figure 1. The distribution of wage income by level of education in 1986. Source: Estimates are from
the March 1987 Current Population Survey.
inary but de facto barrier to those on either
side. The distinction between sociophysics and econophysics is fluid and
nearly meaningless. Lux (2005) cited my
papers on the IP as evidence of his thesis
that econophysicists should not ignore
social scientists. In 2006, I published an
introductory review and extension of the
Inequality Process for econophysicists
in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its
Applications (2006a; see draft at <www.
lisproject.org/publications>).
Figures 1 and 2 give examples of
empirical patterns implied by the IP. In
statistical mechanical terms—the way
econophysicists see the IP—Figures 1 and
2 are a kind of condensation/crystallization resulting from the “cooling” of competition among people. The shapes of the
distribution of wage income as a function
of workers’ levels of education. In IP
terms, the shape difference between the
wage income distributions of the more
and less educated indicate the competition experienced by the more educated is
“cooler.”
The Math of Bigotry
Because the IP models competition
among people, which, as urban sociologist Robert E. Park knew, drives discrimination and victimization, the IP provides
a solution to Franklin’s “wolves”
problem. The IP traces how individual
acts of victimization by a majority
against a minority result in exquisitely
detailed patterns in minority income
statistics, patterns never understood as
the consequence of such acts before the
IP. See the figure labeled “hill of hate”
in my paper (Angle, 1992) about the
distribution of personal income among
African-Americans. The IP offers hope
for reducing the intensity of interpersonal competition along with techniques
(e.g., social insurance) to disincentivize
discrimination. The IP also explains why
social movements that thrive on bigotry
want to eliminate social insurance. In
the IP every human population “cooks”
with competition at some temperature.
Desperation drives the competition.
The “hotter” the temperature, the more
predatory (cf Franklin) people are relative to one another, the more like Social
Darwinism the competition becomes. In
a paper for last year’s American Physical
Society meetings, Kotz (2006) pointed
out that the IP would have predicted the
upsurge of prejudice and discrimination
in eastern Europe as the welfare systems
there were dismantled in the late 1980s
and 1990s. In the IP, participation in a
discriminatory coalition is an attempt to
transfer “heat” to the coalition’s victims. The “hill of hate” figure in Angle
(1992) shows that the IP implies what is
called in statistical mechanics a “phase
transition” (like the melting of ice as its
temperature rises past 0 degrees Celsius),
a nonlinear increase in the incentive to
form a discriminatory coalition as the
“temperature” of competition rises. In IP
terms, a discriminatory coalition is something like a convection cell in a fluid.
The difference between qualitative
insight into desperation and interpersonal competition described via a temperature metaphor on the one hand and
the IP on the other is that the IP relates
the metaphor to observed quantitative
patterns in data on income and wealth.
The IP also implies some principles of
economics never before understood as
joint implications of a single mathematical model (Angle, 2006b). That is, in the
IP there is no divide between sociophysics and econophysics. If a student asks
what sociology would be like if it were
a mathematical science, consider that
it might be like statistical mechanics in
physics and that the Inequality Process
might be a starting point. There are short
descriptions of the IP in Tim Liao, et al.’s
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science
Research Methods (Sage, 2003) and Kleiber
and Kotz’s Statistical Size Distributions in
Economics and Actuarial Sciences. (Readers
can network about the interface between
sociology and sociophysics by joining the
ASA’s Mathematical Sociology Section.)
Some economists, such as Lux,
Univer-sity of Kiel (Germany), have
crossed the disciplinary divide between
economics and econophysics to the
enrichment of both. Sociologists
have been invited by professors B. K.
Chakrabarti and A. Chatterjee, conference organizers, to attend this year’s
Econophys-Kolkata III (see <www.saha.
ac.in/cmp/econophys3.cmp>). Lux
spoke at Econophys-Kolkata I at the Saha
Institute of Nuclear Physics in India.
See Math, page 11
Figure 2. The distributions of wage income by level of education from 1961 through 2001 (from
most educated to least educated). Five-year averages are taken to compress and smooth the data.
The IP implies the persistence of the distribution shapes. Source: Estimates are from the March
Current Population Survey, 1962–2002.
February 2007 Footnotes
11
Member Spotlight:
Thomas Lief:
A Profile of Service to His Community
R
etired sociologist Thomas Lief
has been a loyal member of the ASA
since Elvis Presley entered the music
charts in 1956. During his senior year
at the University of New Mexico, he
was encouraged by his professor, Paul
Winter, to join the Association. He has
steadfastly renewed ever since. As one
of ASA’s most loyal members, he has
also kept every piece of correspondence
ever sent to him by the ASA.
Born a New Yorker, Lief relocated
to the mountainous and beautiful
natural setting of New Mexico, where
as an undergraduate he changed his
major to sociology after first pursuing
degrees in pre-med studies, business
administration, and psychology. He was
fascinated by the academic discourse in
anthropology and sociology. After taking a sociology course, he appreciated
how sociological theories and methods
explained the complexity of social forces.
He then became hooked. In fact, he was
so enticed, his membership could not
be interrupted even by military service
when he notified the ASA Executive
Office that he would like his mail sent to
his parent’s address.
After his military service ended in
the mid-1950s, Lief decided to pursue a
masters degree with a focus on deviance
and Native American cultures. Being
part-Native American, he was interested
in studying how alcoholism and violence
resulting from substance abuse affected
the Pueblo tribe. Not long after completing his master’s degree, he moved to
New Orleans to obtain a doctorate from
Tulane University. Following a brief
post-graduate stint at Loyola University,
he joined the faculty at Southern
University (a predominately AfricanAmerican institution), where he taught
for 30 years until his retirement in 1998.
founder and president of the National
Association of Substance Abuse Trainers
Lief’s contributions to sociology
and Educators.
went beyond academia. As a professor
Because he was active
at Southern University,
in
lobbying
the state govhe was alarmed by the
ernment,
he
gained local
serious social problems
political support for his
caused by substance
community action efforts.
abuse in New Orleans.
He also successfully
During the early 1970s,
persuaded Louisiana to
there were few comdefine alcoholism as a dismunity services availease instead of a problem.
able to help low-income
He is currently serving
people facing drug
on the State Commission
addiction, alcoholon Addictive Disorders,
ism, and gambling. In
which reviews and evaluresponse, Lief developed
ates programs provided
a training program for
by the State Office of
undergraduate students
Addictive Disorders.
who battled substance
After many years of
abuse problems. This
service
in sociology, Lief
Thomas
Lief
innovative program was
recently
reflected on the
supported by state and
changes
in
the discipline.
federal funding.
“There
is
a
tendency
to
be
more applied
In addition to classroom learning,
and to be offering focus on training to
his students were expected to visit drug
assist in the amelioration of major social
treatment facilities and local jails. This
“community exposure” approach was
intended to help students understand
the blight of drug abuse on urban
societies. Some of the students who
participated in this program became
administrators of the drug treatment
programs after graduation. Ken Cocke,
a fellow faculty member at Southern
University, noted that “Tom is the person
responsible for seeing substance abuse as
a field of study.”
Community and Political Support
Outside of the classroom, Lief created and led many organizations that
trained and certified drug dependency
counselors. He started an outreach center
for children from impoverished New
Orleans neighborhoods and formed an
Odyssey House branch in New Orleans
for those seeking drug addiction therapy
and alcohol treatments. He also was the
Math, from page 10
Statistical physicists bring powerful
mathematical tools to Comte’s positivist
program, but they may need help with
moving beyond ad hoc modifications of
canonical models of statistical mechanics. There is a potential for collaborations
between sociologists and interdisciplinary physicists in pursuing Comte’s vision
based on complementary skills. There
is no difference in meaning between
sociophysics as used today by statistical
physicists and sociology as coined by
Comte almost two centuries ago.
For more information on how interdisciplinary physicists have incorporated
the IP into their research since 2005, do
a search at www.google.com on “John
Angle” and physics, or email me at
[email protected].
References
Angle, J. 1992. “The Inequality Process and
the Distribution of Income to Blacks and
Whites.” Journal of Mathematical Sociology
17:77-98.
———. 2006a “The Inequality Process as a
Wealth Maximizing Algorithm.” Physica
A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications
367:388-414.
———. 2006b. “A Comment on Gallegati et
al.’s “Worrying Trends in Econophysics.”
In The Econophysics of Stocks and Other
Markets: The Proceedings of the Econophys
Kolkata II Conference, A. Chatterjee and B.
After the Storm
New Orleans or Bust
Hurricane Katrina and the storm’s
aftermath had a devastating impact on
Lief and his close friends and associates.
Like many survivors, he experienced
property damage to his house and he
suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. “I have friends who died or who
were scattered because of Katrina,” said
Lief. “But I haven’t changed my worldview. I am determined to help rebuild
our beautiful city.” His mission is more
urgent than ever since many drug and
alcohol treatment counselors have left
New Orleans.
In this retirement, Lief keeps himself
busy. He finds time to write stories and
poetry and is a singer for a local symphony chorus. Lief does archaeological
work with the state of Louisiana and
he has worked on excavation projects
at Pueblo reservations in the southwest
United States. In summarizing his professional and life experience, he said “I
have a life-long commitment to serve.”
Just for Fun: A Sociological Trivial Pursuit
by Jack Nusan Porter, The Spencer Institute for Social Research
While doing research on the popular image of sociology in the press, in films, on television,
and in glossy journals, I have come across many fascinating but often trivial bits of sociologia. So, in a kind of Reader’s Digest–style quiz, I present my first one. If you have other examples of such trivia for future quizzes, please send them to me at [email protected].
I dedicate this to the late Marcello Truzzi (in fact, one of the questions below honors him)
who edited in the 1960s and 1970s a range of interesting newsletters that contained similar
bits of sociologia. I miss him very much.
The questions range from the easy to the nearly impossible to answer. Good luck! The
answers are in the gray box below.
(1) Georg Simmel was a very close friend of this German theologian and influenced his
famous “I-Thou Dialogue.”
(2) What well-known 1930s naturalistic Chicago novelist responded to the gushing of a
reporter who said: “Oh, Mr. _______, you know you are not just a great novelist, but also
an important sociologist.” Mr. _______was reported to have replied angrily: “Madame,
please don’t call me a sociologist. A sociologist is a person who needs $25,000 from the
Ford Foundation to find the address of the nearest whorehouse!”
(3) Which Midwest sociologist, sadly deceased, almost made the cover of Time in the 1960s?
K. Chakrabarti (Eds.), February. Milan:
Springer.
Bernstein, R. 1988. “Sociology Branches Out
But Is Left in Splinters.” New York Times,
August 30.
Keith, B. 2005. “A Century of Motion:
Disciplinary Culture and Organizational
Drift in American Sociology.” Footnotes
December, 33(9):6.
Kleiber, C. and S. Kotz. (2003). Statistical Size
Distributions in Economics and Actuarial
Science. New York: Wiley.
Kotz, S. 2006. “Reflection on Econophysics by
a Statistician.” Paper presented to March
2006 Meeting of the American Physical
Society. Abstract is online at <meetings.aps.
org/Meeting/MAR06/Event/39240>.
Lenski, G. 1966. Power and Privilege. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Liao, T., et al. (Eds.), The SAGE Encyclopedia
of Social Science Research Methods. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lux, T. 2005. “Emergent Statistical Wealth
Distributions in Simple Monetary Exchange
Models: A Critical Review.” Pp. 51-60
in Econophysics of Wealth Distributions,
A. Chatterjee, S. Yarlagadda, and B. K.
Chakrabarti (Eds.), September. Milan:
Springer.
* The Inequality Process Institute is an alias
for John Angle, private scholar.
Join the discussion about this article
at <members.asanet.org/Forums/
view_forum.php?id=11>
(4) Howard S. Becker was not only a fine sociologist (and my teacher at Northwestern
University) but an accomplished musician. What instrument did he play?
(5) This Cambridge, Massachusetts, man, who died at 101 a few years ago, was a strong
admirer of sociologists and is considered the “Father of Public Relations.”
(6) This sociologist and priest probably has written more articles for TV Guide than anyone
else in the field.
(7) Which well-known novelist and actor (in the movie Reds with Warren Beatty), and originally from Poland, was actually a sociologist?
(8) The theme of this 1982 movie, the first Chinese-American film ever made, and directed
by Hong-Kong-born Wayne Wang, was very sociological, emphasizing “cross-cultural
misunderstandings.”
(9) Which well-known Midwestern (from Michigan) sociologist was a juggler and came
from a famous circus family?
(10) Werner Cahnman was a student and colleague of which famous Chicago School sociologist at Fiske University in the late 1930s and 1940s?
Answers: (1) Martin Buber; (2) James Farrell, author of the Studs Lonigan trilogy and
other books; (3) Don Martindale; (4) Piano; (5) Edward L. Bernays; (6) Andrew Greeley;
(7) Jerzy Kosinski; (8) Chan Is Missing; (9) Marcello Truzzi; (10) Robert E. Park
by Craig Schaar,
ASA Membership and Customer Service
issues,” he said. “I really believe sociologists have not yet understood society;
they research around it, but not have yet
reached a meaningful comprehension.”
If you got 9–10 answers correct, you are brilliant and win the Isaac Asimov Trivia Award;
7–8 correct is excellent; 5–6 is very, very good; 4 or fewer means you need to do a lot
more reading because you’re just not filling your head up with enough trivia.
Note: The sociologist who actually made the cover of Time magazine was David Reisman.
To my knowledge, he’s the only sociologist to ever do so, but I’ll keep that one for the
next trivia quiz.
Questions (and scores) can be sent to the author at [email protected].
12 F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
New Staff at the ASA
Executive Office
Robin Licata
started a new position at the ASA as
the Website and
Database Manager on
November 27, 2006.
She was born and
raised in Watertown,
NY, not far from
Ontario, Canada. Prior
to ASA, Robin worked for the American
Power Conversion Corporation for
six years as a Web Developer. She also
worked for the Association of Graduates
at the United States Military Academy,
Minolta Business Systems, and Eaton
Corporation, SEO. She has more than
ten years of experience in static and
dynamic website development, writing
website code, and database creation and
management. She earned her MBA in
business administration at Mount Saint
Mary College. When not writing code or
querying databases, she enjoys spending time with her family—her husband
Michael and two sons Lorenzo, 3, and
Nico, 1. Her other interests include cooking, deep sea fishing, shopping, traveling, reading, and beagles.
Sujata Sinha
started working at
the Executive Office
on December 18,
2006, as the Media
Relations Officer.
Prior to joining the
ASA, Sujata spent
seven years working
in television. She
started her broadcast career at WLVI-TV in
Boston. From there, she went on to spend
six years at WPIX-TV in New York City,
taking on various producing responsibilities, from segment producing to planning
for major news events. While at WPIX, she
received an Emmy award for her work on
the station’s September 11, 2001, anniversary coverage. After WPIX, Sujata moved
to Washington, DC, to be the producer
for John McLaughlin’s national interview
program, “One on One.” Next, she set her
sights on international news, working as a
booker for the newly launched Al Jazeera
English Channel. Sujata has a dual degree
in broadcast journalism and sociology from
Boston University. She was born and raised
in New York City and is the proud aunt of
a 19-month-old girl, Arya. She enjoys good
conversation, politics, reading the paper,
cardio kick boxing, and writing.
Blogger, from page 4
post was valuable precisely because of
the comments people left on it.”
From Hensley’s perspective, blogging
provides a testing ground for further
research and writing. “Blogging,” she
said, “can be a way to hone ideas for
more rigorous application elsewhere.
Similar to hashing out a thought with
colleagues over coffee or while standing
in the hallway outside your office, blogging can draw energetic input quickly
and from diverse sources, which can be
very valuable.” Hensley is also considering parlaying her blog posts into a
popular sociology book on race.
And regarding some hiring committees’ continued apprehension of the
appropriateness of blogging, Freese
believes that the practice should be
viewed as a boon to sociology departments. “Given two candidates who
seemed otherwise equal but one had a
blog and one didn’t, I would go with the
person with a blog. I think having a blog
and reading blogs is a good indicator of
being intellectually alive and wanting to
remain so,” he says. “The latter is especially important in sociology, as there are
so many promising sociologists whose
curiosity is dead by the time they are five
years out of graduate school. Blogging
is also a good indicator of being able to
write and being eager to share ideas,
which are attributes sociology departments should value.”
Blogging as a sociological phenomenon
Freese finds the “sociological puzzle”
behind why people read blogs to be
more intriguing than why people write
them. After all, he says, the need for
attention is an obvious motivation for
starting a blog. “The Internet makes it
possible for anyone to enter an attention market for very low cost. Attention
markets have always had a lot of
entrants­—many people, it seems, really
like attention—and so it’s not surpris-
ing many people would start blogs.
Attention markets can be brutal and cold
to the casual entrant, and so it’s not that
surprising many people who start blogs
would stop not long afterward,” Freese
asserts. But he goes on to say the “rise
in occupational circumstances that give
people large amounts of unstructured
time in front of a computer” accounts
for the popularity of blog-reading.
According to Freese, blogs offer a short,
fun respite from working, and is more
convenient as a brief diversion than, say,
a television program. Even so, he adds,
“There are many different types of blog
readers, and I would love it if the sociology of the blog reader was understood
better than it presently is.”
C.N. Le, or Cuong Nguyen Le, notes
the ways that the Internet has dramatically altered the landscape of social
communication, even while he is not
so enthusiastic about some of its less
positive aspects. “I’m not particularly
thrilled with all of its developments, in
particular how anonymity now allows
people to ignore conventional norms of
civility toward others, but their impact
is undeniable,” says Le, whose areas
of interest include race and ethnicity,
immigration, and Asian Americans and
how those topics intersect with academics and Internet culture.
However dismaying and disruptive
the advance of the Internet communications may be to some, Hensley affirms
that its presence is permanent, its impact
still unfolding. She concludes: “So, blogging—instant communication between
humans around the world—is not only
here to stay, I would suggest, but is
going to affect us ultimately in ways that
many of us may not like. We can eschew
them, but we will not outlive them.
They appear to be a wave of the future
that we—shocked or not—will learn to
respect.”
Public Forum
Thank You, ASA
In 1991 I participated in drafting a
resolution, presented to the Council,
affirming the ASA’s opposition to discrimination against gays and lesbians
in the U.S. military. It passed and, while
appreciated, it was, after all, “just” a
resolution. Signing on to an amicus brief
to the United States Court of Appeals
for the First Circuit is something else
entirely. (See January 2007 Footnotes
article on ASA’s amicus brief regarding
the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.)
As one of the social scientists participating in the brief in Cook v. Rumsfeld, I
cannot overstate my sincere appreciation
for the willingness of the ASA to sign on.
I know that various Council resolutions
have, in the past, caused a stir among
the membership. The ASA, fearing such
criticism, could have refused to participate in the brief, failing to stand behind
the work of its members. As a lesbian
veteran of the U.S. military, a sociologist,
and a member of the ASA, I am proud
to be affiliated with an organization that
is willing to express its support for the
research of its members, even when the
issue under review is a contentious one.
Thank you for your role in making
this happen.
Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert,
Hamline University
MSS/NCSA Workshop on
Quantitative Literacy
Start off the Midwest/North Central Sociological Association (MSS/NCSA) joint
meeting with a bang by registering for a pre-conference workshop on “Models
of Quantitative Literacy Across the Sociology Curriculum.” The workshop is
scheduled from 12:30–4:00 PM on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, in Chicago. After
a break from 4:00–4:30 PM, there will be a panel on “Quantitative Literacy:
Mathematicians, Statisticians, and Sociologists Share What Works,” followed
by a reception.
This workshop and other sessions and workshops during the MSS/NCSA are
a joint venture of the National Numeracy Network (NNN), the Mathematics
Association of America’s Special Interest Group in Quantitative Literacy
(SIGMAA QL) and the American Sociological Association (ASA). These groups
are collaborating to enhance the teaching of quantitative literacy skills to
students across the curriculum, in general education courses and within the
sociology major.
The workshop registration fee is $25 for the first individual from a department, and $10 for each additional registrant from the same department.
Advance registration is required. Send a check payable to ASA to: Academic
and Professional Affairs, American Sociological Association, 1307 New York
Avenue, NW, #700, Washington, DC 20005.
The deadline is March 15, 2007.
Pre-Conference for Beginning
Instructors on Teaching
Beginning instructors and graduate teaching assistants are encouraged to apply
for the ASA Pre-conference, “Teachers are Made, Not Born: A Workshop for
New Sociology Instructors,” to be held from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM on Friday,
August 10. The pre-conference, sponsored by the ASA Section on Teaching
and Learning in Sociology, will combine presentations, panels and roundtable
discussions on teaching and learning issues, all led by experts in the field. For
information on specific sessions, see the ASA Section on Teaching and Learning
in Sociology website at www2.asanet.org/sectionteach.
Participants will be admitted on a rolling basis with consideration as
applications are received. Applications are available on the website or
from Betsy Lucal ([email protected]; 574.520.4899). A $50 registration fee
covers conference materials, snacks and Section membership. We encourage
interested individuals to apply soon.
February 2007 Footnotes
Corrections
The title of the November 2006 Footnotes
profile of the 2007 ASA President (p. 1)
was incorrect. Frances Fox Piven is the
2007 ASA President.
Call for Papers
Conference
Annual International Symposium on
Forecasting, June 24-27, 2007, Marriott
Marquis Times Square, New York, NY.
Theme: “Financial Forecasting in a Global
Economy.” Abstract submission deadline:
March 2, 2007. For more information, visit
<www.forecasters.org/isg>.
Engaging Islam, September 12-15, 2007,
University of Massachusetts-Boston. The
2007 Fall Institute at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston invites proposals
that explore critically the relationship
between Islam and Feminism today.
By engaging Islam through a feminist
lens, we hope to challenge inadequately
interrogated assumptions and modes of
thinking that posit secularism and democracy in opposition to religiosity and
oppression. For more details about the
institute and guidelines for submissions,
visit <www.engagingislam.umb.edu>.
On The Edge: Transgression and the
Dangerous Other, an Interdisciplinary
Conference, August 9-10, 2007, John Jay
College of Criminal Justice and CUNY
Graduate Center. The conference will
involve presentations, art and photographic exhibits, music, spoken word
performances,and film screenings centered around the concept of a new criminology for the 21st century. Interested
participants from all disciplines can send
their ideas and concepts to: Transgression
Conference, c/o Department of Sociology,
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899
10th Street, New York, NY 10019; email
[email protected]. Deadline for
Submissions: March 1, 2007.
Publications
The ASA Demography Teaching Resource
Guide will be updated this spring and
published in August 2007. We would
like to include course syllabi or teaching
exercises for a variety of undergraduate
and graduate demography courses. If
you have a syllabus or a relevant teaching
exercise that you would like to share with
demography colleagues in this publication, submit them by April 15, 2007, to:
Demography Teaching Resource Guide,
Department of Sociology, University
of Oklahoma, 780 Van Vleet Oval, KH
331, Norman, OK 73019; email davidp@
ou.edu. The Demography Teaching Resource Guide is published by members
of the Population Section of the American
Sociological Association.
The Journal of Long Term Home Health
Care is interested in articles of about 20
pages in length that are focused on any
aspect of health care and social issues as
they pertain to the elderly. Manuscripts
may include position papers, reports of
research studies, case reports, analyses of
government policy, descriptions and/or
evaluations of agencies, programs, and
not-for-profit organizations serving any
component of the aged population. The
Journal also considers for publication
commentaries on previously published
articles, book and media reviews, etc.
Contact: F. Russell Kellogg or Philip W.
Brickner, Saint Vincent’s Hospital-Manhattan, Department of Community Medicine, 41-51 East 11th Street, 9th Floor, New
York, NY 10003; [email protected].
Research in Sociology of Education, 2007
Edition. This issue will focus on the press
for school accountability, both in the U.S.
and abroad. Papers must contribute to
our theoretical understanding of how
governments attempt to alter social relations inside schools or classrooms, and
may include new findings on resulting
effects on local educators, children, or
families, as well as benefits accruing
to the state. Manuscripts must draw
on original quantitative or qualitative
data. Review articles or essays are not
appropriate. Email a two-page sketch of
your proposed paper by February 28, to
Melissa Henne at [email protected].
Earlier editions can be viewed at <www.
elsevier.com/>.
Review of Sociology of Education, 2007
Edition. The 2007 edition of Review of
Sociology of Education (RSE) will include 10
high-quality articles that focus on (1) describing school accountability reforms in
the United States, Europe, and other parts
of the world, including how they differ
and sometimes depart from idealized policy models, (2) assessing empirically how
local educators interpret and respond to
accountability policies, (3) reporting on
how students respond to accountability
regimes, including differing kinds of child
measures, and (4) examining how centralized accountability may affect social participation and the distribution of political
power across stakeholders. RSE does
not accept review papers or speculative
essays. A prospectus, not exceeding two
single-spaced pages, should be mailed
by January 12, 2007, to Melissa Henne,
PACE-Graduate School of Education, Tolman Hall 3653, University of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720.
Special Issue of Signs: Gender and
Spirituality. In this special issue we are
seeking essays that rethink contemporary
feminist theory and practice through
analysis of various representations and
formations of spirituality. The special issue editors seek manuscripts that provide
new ways of theorizing and analyzing the
relationship between women/gender and
spirituality. They are interested in essays
that move beyond conventional binary
oppositions between the sacred and the
secular by considering the ways in which
women’s lives, identities, thought, cultural and intellectual practices, activism,
and social movements have rested on
complex understandings of the relationships among the spiritual, the material,
the rational, the scientific, and the secular.
The deadline for submissions is June
1, 2007. Visit <www.journals.uchicago.
edu/Signs/instruct.html> for submission
guidelines.
Meetings
April 3-5, 2007. Social Policy Research and
Evaluation (SPRE) Conference 2007, Wellington Convention Centre, Wellington, New
Zealand. A New Zealand Government
initiative led by the Ministry of Social Development the 2007 SPRE Conference will
provide a forum for the diverse audience
of policy practitioners, non-governmental
organizations, researchers and evaluators,
and the wider community to come together to discuss and debate the landscape
of social policy in New Zealand in an open,
engaging and innovative way. For more
information and to register, visit <www.
msd.govt.nz/social-policy-conference>.
for the History of Human Sciences, Cheiron Conference, University College, Dublin, Ireland. For more information, visit
<www.psych.yorku.ca/orgs/cheiron>.
August 9-10, 2007. On The Edge: Transgression and the Dangerous Other, an Interdisciplinary Conference, John Jay College of
Criminal Justice and CUNY Graduate
Center. Contact: Transgression Conference, c/o Department of Sociology, John
Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899 10th
Street, New York, NY 10019; email [email protected].
September 12-15, 2007. Engaging Islam,
University of Massachusetts-Boston.
For more details about the institute and
guidelines for submissions, visit <www.
engagingislam.umb.edu>.
October 19-20, 2007. Atlanta Conference on
Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
2007, Global Learning Center, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.
Theme: “Challenges and Opportunities
for Innovation in the Changing Global
Economy.” Contact: atlantaconference@
pubpolicy.gatech.edu.
Funding
The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise offers five $15,000 Schusterman
Israel Scholar Awards to students interested in pursuing academic careers in
fields related to the study of Israel. These
highly competitive awards will be available to undergraduates who have already
been accepted to graduate programs,
graduate students who have received
master’s degrees in Middle East related
fields who wish to pursue doctorates,
and doctoral students who are writing
dissertations related to Israel. Grants are
renewable for up to five years based on
the completion of certain milestones. Proposals from candidates in all disciplines
with an Israel focus are welcome. The
competition is open only to U.S. citizens.
Complete applications including transcripts and references must be received
by March 1, 2007. Eligibility requirements
and application materials are available at
<www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/
isdf/isdfawards.html>.
Investigator Awards in Health Policy
Research 2007. The Investigator Awards
in Health Policy Research program of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
supports highly qualified individuals to
undertake broad studies of America’s
most challenging policy issues in health
and health care. Grants of up to $335,000
are awarded to investigators from a
variety of disciplines for innovative research projects that have national policy
relevance. Application deadline: March
28, 2007. Contact: Lynn Rogut, (732)
932-3817; email [email protected];
<www.rwjf.org/applications/solicited/
cfp.jsp?ID=19790>.
June 24-27, 2007. Annual International
Symposium on Forecasting, Marriott Marquis Times Square, New York, NY. Theme:
“Financial Forecasting in a Global Economy.” <www.forecasters.org/isg>.
Research Fellowship. The Scottish Centre
for Crime and Justice Research is a major
collaborative research initiative involving
a number of Scottish universities, and
is supported by the Scottish Funding
Councils and the Scottish Executive.
Its six thematic research networks will
provide an important stimulus to criminological and criminal justice research
in Scotland. Applicants may come from
a range of fields, but should be able to
demonstrate that their interests, skills,
and experience are appropriate to the
objectives of the relevant network. As
well as a strong background in research
methods and practices, applicants should
also have a good knowledge of the main
developments in the area of criminal
justice policy, practice, and research.
Further details on the Centre and its
networks can be found at <www.sccjr.
ac.uk>. For the fellowship announcement, visit <www.jobs.ed.ac.uk/vacancies/index.cfm?fuseaction=vacancies.
detail&vacancy_ref=3006679&go=GO>.
June 26-29, 2007. Cheiron (International
Society for the History of Behavioral and
Social Sciences) will hold a joint international conference with the European Society
Ruth Simms Hamilton Research Fellowship. The online application is now
available for this year ’s Ruth Simms
Hamilton Research Fellowship. The fel-
April 4-7, 2007. The Midwest Sociological
Society and the North Central Sociological
Association Joint Annual Meetings and
Conference, Chicago Marriott Downtown
Magnificent Mile, Chicago, IL. Theme:
“Social Policy, Social Ideology, and Social Change.” Contact: Lauren Tiffany,
MSS Executive Director, (608)787-8551;
email [email protected]; <www.
themss.org/meetings.html>.
June 7-10, 2007. The 11th Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research
and Action, Hilton Hotel in Pasadena,
CA. Theme: “Community and Culture:
Implications for Policy, Social Justice,
and Practice.”
lowship is funded by an endowment from
TIAA-CREF, at which Professor Hamilton
served as a trustee from 1989-2003, and
will be administered by the TIAA-CREF
Institute. The fellowship will be awarded
to graduate students enrolled in a social
science field relating to urban/black
studies or the African Diaspora at an
accredited public or private university.
Apply online by visiting <www.scholarshipadministrators.net/>. Click the “Apply for a new scholarship” link. Follow
the onscreen instructions to apply for an
applicant identification number (AIN).
Once you have retrieved your AIN use
TIAA as your access key.
Competitions
Elizabeth G. Cohen Applied Research in
Sociology of Education Award. The Sociology of Education special interest group
at AERA invites nominations (including
self-nominations) for the Elizabeth G.
Cohen Applied Research in Sociology
of Education Award. The award is given
once every two years to a sociologist or
someone in a related field whose body of
research has focused on the improvement
of schools, school districts, or educational
policy. The awardee should be a member
of AERA during the year in which the
award is given. He or she will be honored at the AERA Annual Meeting. The
deadline for nominations is February 28,
2007. For each nomination, send a letter
identifying the person and the reasons
the scholar is worthy of this award. Send
nominating letters to Daniel A. McFarland at [email protected].
In the News
Jeanne Batalova, Migration Policy Institute, had her fact sheet on Mexican
workers cited on the Tonight Show with
Jay Leno.
Martha Beck, Harvard University, was
interviewed by ABC News on weight loss
on January 5.
Karen A. Cerulo, Rutgers University, has
done a number of 30 minute interviews
13
on syndicated radio shows such as Greg
Allen’s The Right Balance, Richard Baker’s
Perspectives, Pat Reuter’s Viewpoints, and
Bruce Wadzeck’s Transitions. She has also
done several 30 and 60 minute interviews
on local radio stations including WFAN
and WXRK in New York, WSMN in Nashua, NH, KVON in Napa California, KPTK
in Seattle, WA, KAOS in Evergreen, WA,
WBAA in Lafayette, IN, and KSFR in Santa
Fe, NM. These interviews centered on her
new book, Never Saw It Coming: Cultural
Challenges to Envisioning the Worst.
Judith A. Cook, University of IllinoisChicago, was quoted in a December 27
Baltimore Sun article about her research
on employment as a path to recovery for
adults with mental illness.
Kimberly McClain DaCosta, Harvard
University, is mentioned and pictured
with her children in a December 26 New
York Times article about racial attitudegenerated difficulties that black families
encounter when trying to find nannies
willing to care for their children.
John Dale, George Mason University,
had his photo of students from his Social
Movements and Political Protest class protesting for a class project named “Photo of
the Week” in the Nation.
Paul DiPerna, The Blau Exchange Project,
recently had an op-ed published in the
Washington Examiner, which touched on
collective action, networking, and online
community themes, commenting on the
new Intellipedia website used by the U.S.
Intelligence Community.
Riley E. Dunlap, Oklahoma State University, was quoted extensively in the December 1 issue of CQ Researcher devoted to
“The New Environmentalism.”
Donna Gaines was interviewed by the
Associated Press on December 13 about
Dreamgirls and the girl groups of the
1960s. She was interviewed on December
8 for No One’s Listening, an award-winning radio show/podcast produced at
San Francisco State University, about the
commodification of punk and the NY
scene after CBGB. In its June 2006 issue,
Current Biography published an extensive
profile of Gaines. She also appears in Sam
Dunn’s acclaimed documentary, Metal: A
Headbanger’s Journey.
5th Annual
Qualitative Research
Summer Intensive
June 23-27, 2007
Long Island, NY
Take courses taught by leading scholars in the field
of qualitative analysis.
TOPICS:
SCHOLAR:
Case Study
Bob Stake
Ethnography
Elijah Anderson
Focus Groups
David Morgan; Ray
Maietta
Grounded Theory
Kathy Charmaz; Adele
Clarke
Mixed Methods
David Morgan
Qualitative Methods
Ray Maietta; Ellie DragoSeverson
Qualitative Writing
Kathy Charmaz
And more…
Contact [email protected] to be
added to our mailing list for more information and
early registration discount offers.
RESEARCHTALK, INC.
Phone (631) 218 - 8875
www.researchtalk.com
14 F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
Barry Glassner, University of Southern
California, had his book The Gospel of
Food reviewed in the December 31 Los
Angeles Times.
Angela S. Jamison, University of California-Los Angeles, had her Journal of
Politics article analyzing the impact of
“soft news” on voting behavior featured
on Slate.com on November 2.
James M. Jasper recently discussed his
new book, Getting Your Way, in a business
show podcast The Invisible Hand.
Christopher Jencks, Harvard University,
was quoted in a December 10 New York
Times article about New York renewing a
more humane flophouse.
Douglas Klayman, American University
and President of Social Dynamics, LLC,
had his research on a program that links
the performing arts with early literacy
highlighted in several media outlets nationwide, including the Kansas City
Journal Infozine.
Cameron Macdonald, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, was quoted in a
December 26 New York Times article about
African-American nannies working for
African-American parents.
Orlando Patterson, Harvard University,
was a guest columnist and wrote an op-ed
in the December 23 and 26 New York Times.
The first discusses the need for a holiday
for all and the second is about the inner
self and prejudice. He also wrote an op-ed
about the democratic belief in freedom
that does not work in Iraq that appeared
in the December 19 New York Times.
H. Wesley Perkins, Hobart & William
Smith Colleges, was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor on August 16 about
applying his work on reducing risk behavior using peer social norms in a new
project surveying middle school students
about bullying. This work was also cited
in the September 1 edition of Britain’s
Times Educational Supplement. Perkins was
also quoted in Canada’s Macleans news
magazine on November 13 about his
survey research on 15,000 students at 10
colleges and universities across Canada
indicating that most students drink in
moderation but overestimate drinking
levels of their peers.
Krishnendu Ray, New York University,
was quoted by the Associated Press on
the rising trend of more and more people
entering the culinary arts on January 3.
David R. Segal, University of Maryland,
was quoted on Salon.com on November
2 regarding evidence that American
military personnel were becoming disillusioned with the Iraq War, and in the San
Francisco Chronicle on November 4 and the
Houston Chronicle on November 5 regarding editorials in the Army, Navy, Marine,
and Air Force Times newspapers calling for
the firing of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He was quoted again on Salon.com on
November 9 on Rumsfeld’s resignation.
He was also quoted on November 5 in the
New York Times on marginal declines in
military personnel quality, on November
10 in the Christian Science Monitor on the
increase of women among military veterans, and on November 11 in the Gilroy
Dispatch on increasing numbers of women
on active duty. On November 13, he was
quoted in the San Diego Union-Tribune
on an increase in atrocities committed
by American military personnel. On
November 21 he was quoted in the Lowell
Sun on opposition to the reinstatement
of a military draft. On November 29, his
participation and that of the American
Sociological Association in an amicus
curiae in support of gay and lesbian service personnel was noted in the UK Gay
News. Segal was interviewed on December 15 on Bloomberg Radio concerning
military manpower policy. He was quoted
on December 21 in the International Herald
Tribune, on December 22 in the Wilmington
Morning Star, and on December 23 in the
Winston-Salem Journal on the relatively
small percentage of Americans (2-3 percent) who knew someone who had been
killed in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
He was quoted on Salon.com on December
22 on increasing the size of the U.S. mili-
tary and on December 23 in the Baltimore
Sun and on December 24 in the Chicago
Tribune on the National Guard paying
off-duty personnel a bounty for bringing
in new recruits. He was quoted in the USA
Today on August 1 regarding mothers and
grandmothers who are joining the army.
Segal was quoted on December 30 in
the USA Today and the Seattle Times on a
survey of military personnel.
David R. Segal, University of Maryland,
and John Butler, University of Texas,
were quoted in a Reuters article, which
appeared in the Washington Post, on the
camaraderie experienced by AfricanAmerican soldiers serving in racially
integrated military units.
John Skrentny, University of CaliforniaSan Diego, was quoted in the January
23 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle
on the politics of gay rights and in the
July 23, 2006, edition of the Knight Ridder Tribune Business News on the origins
of affirmative action categories. Also, a
column in the November 12 Los Angeles
Times on Latino politics quoted his book,
The Minority Rights Revolution. His essay,
“The Dying Debate over Racial Justice,”
was published in the November 17, 2006,
issue of The Forward.
D. Randall Smith, Rutgers University,
was quoted in a December 8 New York
Times article on the Knicks’ home game
performance.
Roberta Spalter-Roth and William Erskine, both of the America Sociological
Association, had their research on retirement trends among the social sciences
discussed in the article, “Where the Social
Science Jobs Are,” on Insidehighered.com.
Rodney Stark, Baylor University, was
quoted in the cover story of the December 18 Newsweek on Americans’ religious
beliefs.
Duncan Watts, Columbia University,
Mark Granovetter, Stanford University,
Richard Swedberg, Cornell University,
Brian Uzzi, Northwestern University,
and James Moody, Duke University, were
quoted in a November 10 Science magazine
about network analysis of the Internet.
Genevieve Zubrzycki, University of
Michigan, was a guest on the Public
Broadcasting Service’s The NewsHour with
Jim Lehrer on January 8, 2007, discussing
the resignation of a Polish clergyman
who reportedly worked with Poland’s
communist secret police.
Awards
Michael Messner, University of Southern
California, received the 2006 Raubenheimer Outstanding Faculty Award for
Teaching, Research, and Service from
the USC College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences.
People
Cynthia D. Anderson, Ohio University, is
the new Sociologists for Women in Society
Vice President.
Erin K. Anderson, Washington College,
is a new member of the Sociologists for
Women in Society Career Development
Committee.
David Baker presented “Recommendations and Future Scenarios for the Super
Research University” at the International
Fulbright New Century Scholars Symposium on Global Higher Education, to
the United Nations Education, Scientific,
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on October 24. He also presented on “National
Curricula and National Achievement in
Mathematics and Science” at the 2nd
Annual IEA Research Conference, the
Brookings Institute on November 10. On
December 8, Baker presented “The Super
Research University and the Schooled
Society: Synergy, Paradoxes, and Future
Scenarios.” Keynote presentation at the
Council of Graduate Schools Annual
Meeting, Washington, DC.
Denise A. Copelton, SUNY-Brockport,
Shannon Davis, George Mason University, are new appointees to the Sociologists for Women in Society Membership
Committee.
Diane D. Everett, Stetson University,
and Kecia Johnson are new members
of the Sociologists for Women in Society
Nominations Committee.
Margaret L. Hunter, Loyola Marymount
University, and Kerry Ann Rockquemore, University of Illinois-Chicago,
are new members of the Sociologists for
Women in Society Publications Committee.
Minjeong Kim, University at AlbanySUNY, is the new Sociologists for Women
in Society Student Representative.
Kenneth Land, Duke University, has
been named Editor of the Population
Association of America’s publication,
Demography, from 2008-2011.
Douglas Massey, Princeton University,
was elected as an AAAS Fellow in October.
Constance Nathanson, Columbia University, was elected as an AAAS Fellow
in October.
Jon Fox, and Liana Grancea, Nationalist
Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town (Princeton University
Press, 2006).
Toni M. Calasanti, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, Kathleen
F. Slevin, College of William and Mary,
Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking
(Routledge, 2006).
Laura Fingerson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Girls in Power: Gender,
Body, and Menstruation in Adolescence
(SUNY Press, 2006).
Albert N. Greco, Clara E. Rodríguez,
Fordham University, and Robert M.
Wharton, The Culture and Commerce of
Publishing in the 21st Century (Stanford
University Press, 2007).
Karen D. Hughes, University of Alberta,
Female Enterprise in the New Economy (University of Toronto Press, 2005).
Hermann Kurthen, Antonio V. Menéndez-Alarcón, Butler University, and
Stefan Immerfall (Eds.). Safeguarding
German-American Relations in the New Century: Understanding and Accepting Mutual
Differences (Lexington Books, 2006).
Michel S. Laguerre, University of California-Berkeley, Diaspora, Politics and Globalization (New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Press, 2006).
Wesley Perkins, Hobart and William
Smith Colleges, was recently invited to
keynote two conferences in Great Britain focusing on reducing risk behavior
among youth. In London he gave the
keynote address, “Using Normative
Approaches to Promote Health and
Well-being,” for a conference on youth
sponsored by the National Children’s
Bureau on December 6. In Sheffield, he
gave this keynote address at the Personal,
Social and Health Education Conference
sponsored by the Centre for HIV & Sexual
Health on December 7.
Bart Landry, University of Maryland,
Race, Gender, and Class: Theory and Methods
of Analysis (Prentice Hall, 2007).
Jammie Price, Appalachian State University, is the new member of the Sociologists
for Women Awards Committee.
Celine-Marie Pascale, American University, Making Sense of Race, Class, and
Gender: Commonsense, Power, and Privilege
in the United States (Routledge, 2006).
Tamara Smith is the new Sociologists for
Women in Society Chair of the Career
Development Committee
Dennis Loo, California State Polytechnic
University-Pomona, and Peter Philllips,
Sonoma State University, Impeach the
President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney
(Seven Stories Press, 2006).
Judith Lorber, CUNY-Graduate School,
Mary Evans, University of South Florida,
Kathy Davis, Handbook of Gender Studies
and Women Studies (Sage, 2006).
Robert Perrucci and Carolyn Cummings
Perrucci, both of Purdue University
(Eds.). The Transformation of Work in the
New Economy (Roxbury Publishing Company, 2007).
Harland Prechel, Texas A&M University,
(Ed.). Politics and Globalization, Research
in Political Sociology, Vol.15 (Elsevier/JAI
Press, 2007).
Emily Rosenbaum, Fordham University,
and Samantha Friedman, Northeastern
University, The Housing Divide: How Generations of Immigrants Fare in New York’s
Housing Market (New York University
Press, 2007).
Louise Marie Roth, University of Arizona,
Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on
Wall Street (Princeton, 2006).
Jennifer Rothchild, University of Minnesota, Gender Trouble Makers: Education and
Empowerment in Nepal (Routledge, 2006).
Karen Seccombe, Portland State University, Families in Poverty (Allyn & Bacon
2007).
Wendy Simonds, Georgia State University, Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York, and Mari Meltzer
Norman, Laboring On: Birth in Transition in
the United States (Routledge, 2006).
Kathy Shepherd Stolley, Virginia Wesleyan College, and Vern L. Bullough
(Eds.). The Praeger Handbook of Adoption, 2
Vols. (Praeger, 2006).
Mangala Subramaniam, Purdue University, The Power of Women’s Organizing:
Gender, Caste, and Class in India (Lexington
Books, 2006).
Diane L. Wolf, University of CaliforniaDavis, Beyond Anne Frank: Hidden Children
and Postwar Families in Holland (University
of California Press, 2007).
New Publications
The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory 1830-1930 is available again
and has a new home at Waveland Press
(Long Grove, IL 60047; (847) 634-0081) and
a new ISBN 1577665090. It is available now
for class adoption. The move to Waveland
Joey Sprague, University of Kansas, is the
new Sociologists for Women in Society
President-Elect.
Marybeth Stalp, University of Northern
Iowa, is the new Sociologists for Women
in Society Chair of the Social Action
Committee.
ICPSR SUMMER PROGRAM
Zoltan Tarr, New York City, conducted
a seminar, “Sociologists in Exile (L’esilio
americano di Adorno, Horkheimer e
Cahnman,)” at the Universita degli Studi
di Firenze on October 5, 2006.
Seminar on Quantitative Analysis of
Crime and Criminal Justice Data
Howard Waitzkin, University of New
Mexico, was recently named Distinguished Professor, the highest ranking
faculty position at the University of New
Mexico.
Members’ New
Books
Paul R. Amato, Alan Booth, David R.
Johnson, and Stacy J. Rogers, Pennsylvania State University, Alone Together: How
Marriage in America is Changing (Harvard
University Press, 2007).
Bernadette Barton, Morehead State
University, Stripped Inside the Lives of
Exotic Dancers (New York University
Press, 2006).
Berch Berberoglu, University of Nevada-Reno, The State and Revolution in
the Twentieth Century: Major Social Transformations of Our Time (Rowman and
Littlefield, 2007).
Rogers Brubaker, University of California-Los Angeles, Margit Feischmidt,
in Quantitative Methods of Social Science Research
June 25–July 20, 2007
This four-week seminar in Ann Arbor, Michigan, introduces
participants to major surveys sponsored by the Bureau of
Justice Statistics (BJS), such as the Uniform Crime
Reporting System and the National Incident-Based
Reporting System. The course is designed for early-career
faculty and professionals, as well as for graduate students in
the social sciences who are comfortable with data analysis
software and quantitative research.
Applicants must show evidence of commitment to this
substantive area. BJS provides selected applicants with
stipend support in the amount of $3,500 for travel and
living expenses, as well as course materials. Application
materials and updated course information will be available
in February 2007 on the Summer Program Web site:
www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog.
For more information email: [email protected]
phone: (734) 763-7400
fax: (734) 647-9100
February 2007 Footnotes
is also a hallmark in the history of the
incorporation of women into the Classical Theory canon as The Women Founders
will have as a companion volume Lewis
Coser’s classic history Masters of Sociological Thought. We would also like to thank
all the Sociologists for Women in Society
members who have supported the book
over the years.
New Programs
Career Development Program in Population Based Cancer Prevention and
Control Research. The Division of Cancer
Prevention and Control Research of the
School of Public Health and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), is
accepting applications for a post-doctoral
training program in population-based
multi-disciplinary cancer prevention and
control research. The program is funded
by the National Cancer Institute, and
features: tailored coursework including the option of completing a MPH or
MSPH degree; research in collaboration
with nationally-recognized senior faculty mentors; independent translational
research leading to scientific publications
and grant applications. Traineeships can
be for one to three years. Compensation is
$55,000 annually, plus benefits. Additional
funds provided for tuition, travel, and
research expenses. Applicants must hold
a doctoral degree and be U.S. citizens or
permanent resident aliens. For application
materials visit, <www.ph.ucla.edu/cancerpreventiontraining>. Send completed
applications, or requests for additional
information, to: Barbara Berman, UCLA
DCPCR, 650 Charles Young Drive South,
A2-125 CHS, Box 956900, Los Angeles, CA
90095-6900; (310) 794-9283; fax (310) 2063566; email [email protected].
ance from the NIH Office of Behavioral
and Social Sciences Research and the Society for Research in Child Development.
June 24-29, 2007, Bolger Center, Potomac,
MD. Application packet and Institute
information are available at <www.nichd.
nih.gov/about/org/crmc/cdb/summerinst/index.cfm>. Direct all inquiries to:
[email protected]. Application
deadline: February 15, 2007.
A New PhD in Gender Studies will begin
Fall 2007 at Arizona State University. The
Gender Studies curriculum is designed
to provide students with the interdisciplinary training in theory and methods
needed to create original research and
scholarship about gender. At the core of
the program are four required courses:
Critical Concepts of Gender; Mapping
the Intersections of Gender; Engendering
Methodology; and Research Design and
Development. Students also take two
research methods courses relevant to
their dissertation plus additional courses
in one of our three areas of specialization:
(1) health, science, and technology; (2)
justice, social change, and sustainability;
or (3) visual and narrative culture. Expected application deadline for fall 2007
admission: February 15, 2007. Application
details can be found at <www.asu.edu/
clas/womens_studies/students/index.
html>. Program pending final approval
by the Arizona Board of Regents
Deaths
Kurt B. Mayer, University of Bern,
passed away on September 13, 2006, in
Lugano, Switzerland from the effects of
Parkinson’s disease and cancer.
Helen Ralston, Saint Mary’s University,
passed away on December 25, 2006, following a brief illness.
Obituaries
Donald D. Bouma
(1918–2006)
Summer Programs
Donald D Bouma, 88, died August 8,
2006, in Sun City, AZ. Born February 9,
1918, in Grand Rapids, MI, he spent most
of his life as an academic, public intellectual, and promoter of civil rights in
Western Michigan; retiring to the Phoenix
area in 1984. From 1944-46, he was in the
U.S. Navy; serving on a mine-sweeper in
the Pacific.
He received a BA from Calvin College,
an MA from the University of Michigan,
and a PhD in sociology and anthropology
National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD)/National Institutes of Health Summer
Institute in Applied Research in Child
and Adolescent Development. The Child
Development and Behavior Branch and
the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences
Branch of the NICHD are organizing this
Institute with financial support and guid-
human
relations
workers,
risk and the
new economy
The editors of Human
Relations intend to
publish a special issue of
the journal on the subject
of workers, risk and the
new economy.
Guest Editors:
Paul Edwards
Warwick Business School
Monder Ram
De Montfort University
Vicki Smith
University of California,
Davis
special
issue
call for papers
Much has been written about the ‘risk
society’, which can embrace anything
from existential angst to the dangers of
new technology. Less attention has been
paid to the concrete meaning of risk in
specific circumstances.
This special issue places the experience
of work at centre stage. Its focus is the
nature of risk as it is faced by workers in
the workplace, embracing the sources
of risk, how it is experienced, and how
it can be moderated or even deployed
constructively.
In relation to the moderation of risk,
what are the roles of workers, trade
unions, labour market intermediaries
and regulatory bodies in negotiating
risk? Is risk now simply taken for granted,
and if so is this a universal tendency or
one limited to certain occupations and contexts?
We particularly wish to encourage studies of workers
at the bottom end of the labour market, for risk
affects them in very stark ways; we include here
the insecure work force such as migrant and illegal
workers and temporary and agency staff.
Deadline for submissions: 13 July 2007
For the full call for papers, please visit the Human Relations website:
www.humanrelationsjournal.org
from Michigan State University.
Following a stint as a high school
teacher in Wyoming, MI, Bouma began
a long academic career when appointed
head of the sociology department at
Calvin College in 1946. In 1960, he became Professor of Sociology at Western
Michigan University, retiring as emeritus
professor in 1984. During that time he also
served for 25 years as an adjunct professor
of criminology at University of Michigan,
and as visiting professor at Michigan State
University. In the 1940s and 1950s he was
active in community organizations working for social justice, social welfare, and
improved social services. His students
took up these causes as they populated
social service agencies and schools.
Bouma is the author of Dynamics of
School Integration (1958), and Kids and Cops:
a Problem of Mutual Hostility (1969). He
also authored more than 50 monographs
and articles in professional journals. From
1974-84, he was an associate editor of
the USA Today magazine, and for more
than 20 years was a writer for the Grand
Rapids Press. He was a lecturer on social
issues to both lay and professional groups
throughout the country.
In 1963, Bouma’s Expert Witness testimony at his Federal District Court in an
obscenity case would result in a major
change nationally in the way Federal
Grand Jury panels were selected in order
to reflect ‘community values’ rather than
those of the elites.
Bouma was active at the local, state,
and national levels. By Governor’s Appointment he was on the Michigan Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission, and chair of the Michigan
Fulbright Scholar Selection Committee.
He was head of the Kent County, Michigan Council of Social Agencies Board and
President of the Calvin College National
Alumni Assn. Board. He also was an officer of both the Kent Urban League Board
and Bethany Christian Services Board.
In 1965, Bouma was honoured with the
“Academy Award,” the highest award
given annually for teaching and research,
by the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts
and Letters. In 1970, he was given the
“Teaching Excellence Award” by Western
Michigan University. He was listed in
Who’s Who in America, the International
Biographical Index, American Men of Science and Community Leaders of America.
He was a member of the American Sociological Association, American Criminology
Society, Alpha Kappa Delta, and President
of the Michigan Sociology Society.
He is survived by three children: Prof.
Rev. Gary (Rev. Patricia) Bouma, Melbourne, Australia; Margene (Phil) Burnett,
Eaton Rapids, MI; Jack Bouma, Tetonia,
ID; and six grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren.
Gary D Bouma, Monash University,
Australia
Helen Ralston
(1929–2006)
Sister Helen Ralston, RSCJ, Emerita of
Sociology at Saint Mary’s University and
one of the grandes dames of Canadian
Sociology, passed away on December 25,
2006, following a brief illness. She was
born in Newcastle, New South Wales,
Australia in 1929. She maintained her
family ties and Australian contacts until
the end of her life, traveling to Australia
at least once a year and spending there a
good part of every year, since her retirement especially. Always active in research,
she was usually a visiting fellow at various
Australian universities, lecturing and attending conferences.
Helen was educated in convent schools.
She received a diploma in Social Studies
from the University of Sydney (1952), a
certificate in Medical Social Work (1953),
and worked at the Royal Newcastle Hospital. In 1956 she migrated to Canada,
where she worked at the Montreal General Hospital. Sister Ralston launched her
teaching career in 1959 at the Convent of
the Sacred Heart in Montreal. In 1962 she
relocated to Halifax where she taught at
the Convent of the Sacred Heart until
1965, when she returned to the United
States to receive a BA in Sociology (Boston
College), and in 1969 she received her MA
(Boston College). In 1968, she joined the
Faculty of Arts at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She obtained a Canada
15
Council doctoral fellowship and went to
Carleton, where she graduated in 1973 as
their first PhD in Sociology. She returned
to Saint Mary’s University as an Assistant
Professor, became a full professor in 1989,
and retired in 1994 and was designated
Professor Emerita.
Her work focused on various issues
concerning migrant women, with religion, identity, and empowerment as
key themes. Her published comparative
research focused on immigration and
multicultural policies; interconnected
gender, race, ethnicity, class and religion
in identity construction, experience and
empowerment amongst first and second-generation South Asian immigrant
women. She produced numerous published articles, reports, policy papers,
and conference presentations and two
well-received monographs: Christian
Ashrams: A New Religious Movement in
Contemporary India (1988), and The Lived
Experience of South Asian Immigrant Women
in Atlantic Canada: The Interconnections of
Race, Class and Gender (1997). This is an
excellent record for someone who started
her academic career as a mature adult.
What is most remarkable about Helen was
the unabated zeal and energy with which
she continued to be involved in research
and with the international academic community beyond her retirement.
Besides religion, Helen Ralston identified both in her work and life with feminism, a challenging though not impossible
combination. She had no difficulty telling
the story of the tough fight she had to
go through with when she came up for
tenure. It was unclear whether this was
because she was a woman or a nun. In a
sociological universe where practitioners’
range of religious identities mostly spans
from atheists to agnostics to “religiously
amusical,” a religious feminist sociologist
might have been seen as a contradiction in
terms. Helen felt supported by her feminist friends and inspired by the women’s
movement.
At Saint Mary’s University, she taught
in the Department of Sociology and in the
Asian Studies, Atlantic Canada Studies,
and International Development Studies
Programs. She also served as a faculty
member of the Interuniversity Graduate
Program in Women’s Studies. Having
been involved in the Canadian Metropolis
project from its inception, she became
highly active in the establishment of the
Atlantic Metropolis Centre of Excellence
for Research on Immigration and Diversity/Gender and Immigrant Women
Domain. Helen taught, mentored, and
inspired generations of students who will
most certainly miss her.
All too humanly, despite her rationalanalytical thinking and empiricism, Helen
embodied a bundle of contradictions that
often exasperated those in immediate
contact with her and challenged the faith
of those who noticed this highly unconventional nun in action. She was a perfectionist in an imperfect world—which
she knew about in a cognitive way—yet
she was fighting to fix, possibly on
principle things and people who stood
in her way were swept over. Classically
educated, with an old-world professorial
style, Helen was an aristocrat concerned
for the downtrodden, human rights, and
women’s equality. Her lack of patience for
incompetence and rights violation was
feared and, sometimes, under deadline
pressure, her manners left something to be
desired. Ultimately however, she was forgiving and had a heart of pure gold which
is the characteristic of true nobility.
Helen was convinced that God has a
Plan and a time for everyone to go and that
there is nothing one can do to speed this
up or postpone it. Thus, you do your best
and enjoy every moment for as long as it
lasts. This was ultimately Helen’s legacy,
another yet challenging, ambivalent and
dialectical combination of spirituality and
idealism infused with rationalism and Epicurean hedonism. I repeated one last time
the story of Helen’s miraculous ability to
survive at the ISA conference, this last
summer, in Durban, South Africa, when
we were all waiting for her and she failed
to arrive. I wanted to reassure myself one
more time: Helen would pull through. She
almost did. This is why, her death, in the
end, did not feel like a defeat in a battle
but more like stealth (or a plan?).
Evie Tastsoglou, St. Mary’s University
16 F
ebruary
2007 Footnotes
2007 Student Forum Travel Awards
For Members Only
ASA seeks applications for student travel to 2007
Annual Meeting
ASA Job Bank
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American Sociological Association
1307 New York Avenue NW, Suite 700
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NON-PROFIT ORG.
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ALBANY, NY
PERMIT NO. 31
The American Sociological Association (ASA) Student Forum is pleased to
announce that the ASA Council is making funds available to support student
travel awards to the ASA Annual Meeting. ASA anticipates granting approximately 25 travel awards in the amount of $200 each. These awards will be made
on a competitive basis and are meant to assist students by defraying expenses
associated with attending the 2007 ASA Annual Meeting in New York. All applicants are encouraged to seek additional sources of funding to cover expenses
associated with attending the Annual Meeting.
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announced by May 15, 2007. No part of the application may be submitted by fax,
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Applicants must be students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate sociology
degree in an academic institution and a current student member of ASA at the
time of application. Participation in the Annual Meeting program (e.g., paper
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website (www.socstudentforum.org).
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Save the Dates!
102nd ASA
Annual Meeting
August 11–14, 2007
New York, New York
Theme: Is Another World
Possible?
7
2008 Meeting: August 1–4 in Boston
February 2007
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